Editorial January 1, 1927 ISSUE

Deliverance Through the Power of God

Duncan Sinclair

Many an instance occurs in the Bible of the power of God to deliver from trouble those who put their trust in Him. Perhaps the deliverance of the children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh stands out more prominently than some of those instances, because of the frequency of the intervention of divine power on their behalf. Led forth from Egypt by the understanding of Moses, God's faithful servant, the Israelites had reached the Red Sea only to find the hosts of Pharaoh behind them in close pursuit, almost on the point of driving them back into captivity again. The ordeal was a trying one; but Moses' inspired words reassured the terrified people: "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Their courage revived; and soon they passed on dry land safely through the midst of the sea, delivered by the power of God.

No wonder after such an experience and many another of like nature on the part of the children of Israel, that the Psalms ring with grateful praise to God, the Deliverer of His people. "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles;" "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings," are typical of the words of thanksgiving which reverberate throughout these wonderful poems which constitute so large a portion of the Old Testament. Isaiah, too, dwells often and emphatically on the hand of God, mighty to deliver. For example, these words are to be found in the fifty-ninth chapter of the book of the prophet: "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."

As in the Old Testament, so in the New, God is shown by Christ Jesus and the apostles to be the great Deliverer of mankind. Every one of the miracles wrought by Jesus and his followers of the early Christian church proved that the power of God delivers from sin, disease, and death. And the humble Nazarene declared, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise," thereby making it clear that it was his understanding of God—the Father—which enabled him to set at naught the false beliefs of men which held them in bondage.

Christian Science, which is the Science Jesus applied in all his demonstrations of divine power, reveals the method whereby that power may be utilized to-day, as then, to save mankind from the evils incidental to human existence. Christian Science teaches that God is Mind, ever present, omnipotent, omniscient; that He is Love, infinite and altogether good. Hence it logically affirms that evil, which is the seeming opposite of good, is unreal. Where do these truths lead? To the fact that no circumstance, no condition which is not good, is real. Here, then, is the key to the solution of every so-called evil problem which in belief presents itself to mankind: it can be denied as an illusion of mortal consciousness, as an entirely false belief of material sense. To understand God as the infinitely good and omnipotent Mind, is to be able to deny evil; and if this understanding be sufficiently clear, deliverance from the evil belief will certainly take place. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 225 ): "Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free."

And God is infinite Love! How this great truth appeals to us as it strikes irresistibly at all that is unlovely and unlovable! How can disease, poverty,—human suffering in any form,—continue to flaunt themselves as real in the face of this great truth of Love's infinity? They cannot. What is wrong is mankind's poverty-stricken understanding and realization of the fact of Love's allness. We catch but feeble glimpses of Love's presence and power, whereas all the time we in reality live, move, and have our being in divine Love, where no trace of evil can possibly have an abode. What is needed is more steadfast adherence to Truth as revealed by Christian Science, and prayerful desire to be pure enough to realize it as the only reality.

God is infinite Love! If we could but realize it,—all of us who know something of Christian Science,—how quickly would the world be transformed from a place wherein evil believing and evil doing are seemingly rampant, to one of harmony and joy and health! And individuals would be lifted, each according to his or her special need, into that peace which passeth understanding. What a consoling message do these words of our revered Leader convey to every one of us (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149, 150 ): "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance."

Duncan Sinclair

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