Article October 11, 1924 Issue

Spiritual Strength a Divine Quality

HUGH STUART CAMPBELL

In explaining the vital necessity of overcoming erroneous beliefs, Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 407), "Here Christian Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the weakness of mortal mind,—strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind,—and lifting humanity above itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and good-will to man." In this inspired passage our Leader shows real strength to be a quality of God, divine Mind. Man, the complete expression of God, inherits all right ideas, all good, from the loving Father, and reflects this spiritual strength. Man reflects power, activity, endurance. And as the quality of strength is limitless, man as God's reflection has all the strength he needs at all times. But to demonstrate the inexhaustible source of deific power, one must know that all causation exists in divine Mind, never in matter.

The human mind, so called, finds it difficult to divorce that which it calls strength from what it terms muscularity. Ask a boy unacquainted with the teachings of Christian Science what it means to be strong, and he will probably reply by exhibiting his right arm with a contracted biceps! The teaching of the schools that strength is in and of matter is contrary to the truth expounded in the Scriptures, where such statements as, "The Lord is the strength of my life," and, "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee," show that God is the only source of real strength.

Christian Science teaches—and correct study of the Bible confirms this teaching—that God, infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent Being, is the inexhaustible source of all good, which good is expressed in divine ideas. Man, as God's image, receives as his birthright from a loving creator whatever is needful. Man cannot be limited in any capacity; and he possesses strength and the ability to do that which is right, without loss, failure, exhaustion, or depletion. The understanding that man, thus sustained and directed by God, is ever in his right place, reflecting all right activity, at the right time, is demonstrably scientific. And this reveals to the seeker after Truth that our heavenly Father is not "afar off," but "a very present help in trouble."

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