Editorial April 28, 1928 Issue

Reliance on God

Duncan Sinclair

How often do the Scriptures remind us of the reliance which the Hebrews of old placed on God! All through the Old Testament examples are to be found of it. In the Psalms, for example, we read: "The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people;" "The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation." In Isaiah occur the verses: "Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength;" "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." And turning to the New Testament, to take but a single example from its inspired pages, we have the words of Paul, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." All of these passages alike proclaim a great faith in God, a great reliance upon God, and show sublime confidence in His Power to strengthen and to save.

The Christian Scientist delights in such gems of religious thoughts as those just cited, for they make a direct appeal to his own experience. God to him is never afar off, but always at hand—since man, the real man, is ever at-one with God. What a glorious relationship is this that Christian Science has revealed as eternally existing between God and man! And the appreciation of this relationship, the understanding of it, oftentimes produces wonderment in those who look on, but do not yet comprehend divine Science for themselves, because of the reliance on the goodness and power of God which it inspires in the Christian Scientist. Often, after witnessing the faith which the Christian Scientist reposes in God, the beholder has been led to investigate the teachings of Christian Science for himself, in order to find out just what inspires the faith, the trust, the reliance. And the investigation has frequently led to his gaining an understanding of Christian Science sufficient to enable him to demonstrate in some degree its truths for himself, with the result that he has found himself before so very long a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist.

The Christian Scientist reposes faith and reliance on God because he can do naught else. God to him is infinite good, infinite Love, infinite Spirit; and matter or evil is but a negation—nothing. He must, therefore, place full reliance on God. And the placing of this reliance on God and steadfast holding of it there, to the overcoming of all faith and reliance on matter or evil, is the constant endeavor of every genuine student of Christian Science. And why? Because he knows that only by so doing can he rise above the beliefs of flesh—false material sense—and demonstrate the truths of spiritual being. How radical the Christian Scientist should be in his endeavor, Mrs. Eddy points out on page 167 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she writes: "The 'flesh lusteth against the Spirit.' The flesh and Spirit can no more unite in action, than good can coincide with evil. It is not wise to take a halting and half-way position or to expect to work equally with Spirit and matter, Truth and error. There is but one way—namely, God and His idea—which leads to spiritual being." And a sentence or two farther on she adds, "Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized."

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April 28, 1928
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