Editorial November 15, 1924 Issue

"God is the strength of my heart"

Duncan Sinclair

How wonderfully does the Psalmist in the seventy-third psalm depict the condition in which mortals ofttimes find themselves when he says, "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Who is there among men who has not experienced the failure of strength of which he speaks? And who is there among them who, in his extremity, has turned to whatever understanding of God he may possess and not found, in the ratio of his understanding, the strength to meet his need? Indeed, the words "man's extremity is God's opportunity" have become proverbial.

When Paul was commending his apostleship to the Corinthian church, he drew attention to his infirmities and said that after he had "besought the Lord thrice, that it [a thorn in the flesh] might depart from me," he was answered, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." "Therefore," added the apostle, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." Paul spoke in a similar strain to Timothy, when, after telling him that Alexander the coppersmith had done him much evil, and that when he defended himself "no man stood with me, but all men forsook me," he added, "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." Paul could declare unhesitatingly, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

It is the Christ which has strengthened the fainting heart in all ages. It was the Christ, so marvelously understood by Christ Jesus, that enabled him to speak to mankind the words of divine wisdom which have more than aught else molded the thoughts and determined the acts of men ever since, and that gave him strength to endure what the bitterest hatred could impose upon him, enabling him to overcome the belief of even death itself. And the Christ, as Mrs. Eddy defines it on page 583 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."

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