Article April 2, 1927 Issue

"I will receive you"

HAROLD BOARDMAN

The text, "I will receive you," from Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians is one of those rich, beautiful, and ever available sayings in which the Bible abounds, holding out the promise of spiritual communion with God, the present and ultimate reward which Christians all eagerly long for and are striving to obtain, knowing as they do that in conscious unity with God all is well, all questions are answered, all problems solved, all needs satisfied.

Whatever may be the immediate need which moves us to seek a knowledge of Christian Science, we soon begin to realize that humanity has but one need, and that is to know God. Knowing Him aright, it must needs follow that we shall love Him supremely. Now, to know that certain propositions about God are true, does not in itself signify that we know God. An intellectual assent based on reason and belief will not alone usher us into the concrete realities of being. John in his first epistle says, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." And the obverse dictum of this proposition is also true, namely, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." Faults of character remain unchallenged and uncorrected if a merely intellectual perception is mistaken and accepted for a concrete seeing of God, a perception which always redeems, transforms, and heals.

To be received of God is not merely to perceive the cogency of some fundamental, self-evident proposition or inference: it means to be welcomed, entertained, housed, warmed, clothed, and fed, to feel and know the healing presence of God's power and love, to enjoy the sweet sense of divine Love's hospitality. It is, as Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 77), to feel "the indissoluble bond of union, the power and presence, in divine Science, of Life, Truth, and Love, to support their ideal man. This is the Father's great love that He hath bestowed upon us, and it holds man in endless Life and one eternal round of harmonious being. It guides him by Truth that knows no error, and with supersensual, impartial, and unquenchable Love."

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