Article May 4, 1929 Issue

"Not my will, but thine, be done"

RUBY WILMETH HEDGES

Just before his betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but thine, be done." Some have mistakenly believed that it was God's will that our Master should suffer the tortures inflicted by human hatred; but through the precious truth revealed in Christian Science we gain an entirely new interpretation of God's will, and learn to love it instead of dreading it. Gaining a better understanding of this teaching, we learn that the will of divine Love did not decree suffering and death for our beloved Master, but that through his earthly experience Jesus demonstrated the utter falsity of error and its powerlessness to harm, or even to touch, the real man. Jesus' whole career exemplified man's unity with God, the eternal Father-Mother, or divine Principle, Love.

Mankind has asked: What is God's will? Is it a stern precept, a rule not to be understood, a merciless edict or law, the violation of which may bring endless suffering? Is it to be evaded or feared? How many times God is charged with the results of mortal thinking! When humanity is harassed by tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and death, it often charges these disasters to the "inscrutable will of God"! So-called mortal mind, seeking to be recognized as something, charges God, perfect Mind, with its own evils! We find great encouragement in Revelation, where it is revealed that the "great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."

Misinterpretation of the petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," has oftentimes been a cause of bewilderment to mankind. Throughout the ages, men have been blindly groping their way and accepting all kinds of circumstances as the outcome of the will of God. Thus the will of God has become something to dread; but we should remember that the Bible speaks of "that good, ... and perfect, will of God." Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has spiritually interpreted this sentence in the Lord's Prayer as meaning, "Enable us to know,—as in heaven, so on earth,—God is omnipotent, supreme" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 17). A new light thus dawns; and we learn that it is the perfect and loving will of God that all may know, under all circumstances, that God, good, is All-in-all. With this realization of God's all-ness comes also a conscious drawing nearer to Him, for the Scripture reads, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee." This truth was proved to Job in the overcoming of his ills; and in the closing account of his experiences we read, "So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning."

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