Editorial February 21, 1925 Issue

The Will of God

Duncan Sinclair

THE will of God is mistakenly looked upon by many as being as capricious as the so-called will of mortals. To them it is quite uncertain in its activities, for they believe it to be equally capable of producing happiness and misery, health and disease, life and death. They may hold that the destinies of men are in God's hand, but they believe that these destinies are swayed by a will which is inscrutable and uncertain in its purposes, because they believe that God is cognizant of both good and evil!

The student of Christian Science soon becomes aware how the mistake arises. Christian Science makes it plain that God is infinite and altogether good. Hence it follows that what mortals call evil is unknown to God. Being infinitely good, God neither knows evil nor of evil; He is conscious only of His own perfect self-existence. Unless one gains some understanding of God as infinite good and discerns in consequence that evil is unreal, he cannot possibly know what the nature of the will of God is.

Christ Jesus knew better than any other who has lived on earth the nature of God's will, because he understood so perfectly the nature of God Himself. Jesus was always doing good. Often his good deeds took the form of the healing of disease or sin; sometimes they were made manifest in his mastery over the elements, as when he stilled the storm at sea. But whatever the form his good deeds took, they each and all demonstrated that the will of God is good; for every one of them was based on the understanding that God is good. It will be remembered that just before his betrayal, when his disciples had forsaken him and the awful ordeal of the cross lay before him, the understanding of the goodness of the Father and the perfection of His will was with him as a comforting angel, and he was able to pray: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." And his implicit faith in and obedience to God's will won him the victory over every material belief, including the belief of death. It was Jesus' understanding of God as infinite good and his faith in God's perfect will which gave him his every victory over evil.

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