Article December 24, 1927 Issue

"For the glory of God"

BERENICE W. PULLIAM

IN the eleventh chapter of John we are told that Lazarus fell ill, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word unto Jesus saying, "He whom thou lovest is sick." When Jesus heard this he said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." It is often helpful to consider this account in correlation with a statement to be found in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. On page 233 our beloved Leader writes: "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil."

When problems therefore seem to present themselves to our consciousness, whether they be physical, moral, mental, or financial, it is our joyful privilege to declare with Jesus that this is not an unsolvable problem, but an opportunity to glorify God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. Each trial, tribulation, or temptation should be seen as an opportunity, an opportunity to prove the Christ, or Truth, as we are taught in Christian Science! It is the demand of today—a higher proof rather than a profession of Christian power; and problems would not be ours to solve had we, as the sons of God, not the inherent ability and the spiritual understanding with which to meet and master them. Does not Mrs. Eddy tell us that God's law "demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil"?

Furthermore, on page 571 of our textbook we find this sentence: "Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil." "Know thyself"! What then are we? We, each and all, as the children of God, are the individual ideas of the one and only divine Mind. We are not material, we are spiritual; and our real selves do reflect the understanding and the intelligence necessary to overcome any false belief or to solve any problem that presents itself to mortal thought. At such times it is our right to know and to declare that we do reflect divine wisdom, and that an occasion has been supplied for a victory over error. This realization will lift thought far above self-pity and fear. It will prevent us from vainly wondering "Why." It will help us towards that state of clear perception and exalted consciousness which was that of Jesus when he said, even before Lazarus appeared from the tomb: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always."

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