Article August 4, 1928 Issue

The Omnipresence of Good

ROBERT CECIL BAINBRIDGE

One of the most fundamental and revolutionary teachings of Christian Science is that since there is but one God there can be but one Mind. To mortals this appears absurd; for the human mind has been educated to regard itself as an independent entity, free to think and act as it sees fit, as something both good and bad, and as able to make itself better or worse. But did not Christ Jesus teach that there is but one source of all, one Giver of all? He was constantly emphasizing the all-importance of obeying the First Commandment—of having one God, and therefore one Spirit or Mind. He knew that God maintains all that is real as His own manifestations or ideas, from the tiniest object of creation to the highest idea, man. It was this understanding of God as the one infinite Mind or Spirit that enabled the Master to say to the multitudes, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." Does not this mean that God is infinite Mind, the Father of all, loving and maintaining every one of His infinite ideas?

Sooner or later we shall all come to perceive that progress can never really be made in the understanding of God until we give up the sense of a mind apart from God, and humbly turn to the one divine Mind for guidance. It is then that we begin to realize something of the power, strength, and dominion conferred by true humility. One may fight for his sense of right, and another may fight against him for what he thinks is right; but he who perceives that there is but one Mind, and realizes that as God's child each one reflects or expresses this one Mind, will stand fast for the truth; and all the world may see the truth because every individual may prove it to the exact degree that he understands it. Truth is one, for God is Truth, and God is one; therefore, Truth includes all the qualities and characteristics of God, and is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient.

The surrender of the belief in a mind apart from God necessitates the surrender of a sense of personal goodness, although this often seems difficult to give up. We believe that we should be honest, pure, loving; and if asked why we should express these qualities we might reply, Because God wants us to do so. Although true in a degree, this answer does not go sufficiently deep. The real reason why one should be honest, pure, loving, is that this is the natural, the only true state of existence. Nothing is true that is not honest, pure, loving; therefore the real man expresses these qualities because they are true and real. The negative, suppositional opposites of God, good, simply do not exist. To put it concisely, whatever is evil is not; it has no reality or existence; it is nothing more than the supposed absence of good; and since God is good and is All, good must be ever present and all-powerful.

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