Article August 22, 1925 Issue

"Power belongeth unto God"

INA K. PITNER

Throughout the Old Testament we see the power of God revealed to men in the many wonderful works of the prophets. Moses, the great lawgiver, Elijah, David, and many others demonstrated the availability of the one God to care for, protect, and guide His people. For hundreds of years, however, it was only such spiritual seers who possessed the vision that enabled them to utilize God's power. Then a star shone in the East, and Christ Jesus, whom prophecy foretold would be the Saviour of mankind, came proclaiming God as Truth, Spirit, the loving Father of man, available at all times to all men, "a very present help in trouble."

To the world, power still meant only physical force; and it was the mission of Christ Jesus to prove that the only real power is not material, but spiritual,—is God, divine Love. Constantly referring to man as the son of God, teaching the unity of man with the Father, and attributing all power to God, the Master demonstrated again and again to his disciples the unlimited abundance of spiritual power at their command the instant they turned entirely from reliance on physical force, or human intelligence, to God, whatever might be their need.

Centuries later, Mary Baker Eddy, seeing man's erroneous belief in a power apart from God, was inspired to direct thought again to the only cause and creator, to the one All-power, divine Love, and to teach her followers how to utilize that power as did the followers of Jesus. In that remarkable first sentence in the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. vii) every word is significant: "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings." What does it mean to lean on the "sustaining infinite"? It means to recognize and to realize that the battle is not ours, but God's. It means to rely on the power of that "sustaining infinite," on that Love which cannot fail, knowing that it will dispel the mist of error and bring out the harmony of God's perfect creation. The power of God does not change discord into harmony; rather does it maintain harmony, continuously, eternally. And as we realize that we are dwelling in this power and reflecting it, our illusions of discord vanish, and we see the spiritual reality of existence, the eternal truth of being.

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