Article February 21, 1931 Issue

Honoring God

MARGARET MORRISON

True Christians have at all times evinced a willingness to honor God; but as their concepts of God have varied, so has their manner of honoring Him varied and, at times, fallen manifestly short of the example set by the Master, Christ Jesus. Without a clear, demonstrable knowledge of what God is, it were impossible to honor Him in an intelligent or acceptable manner. Many have attempted to honor Him as a magnified person having a habitation in some faraway place called heaven, from which He supposedly looks upon His creation, judging, blessing, or afflicting His creatures according to an inscrutable will and for an unknown purpose. Difficult, indeed, does mankind find it to honor intelligently that which in its very nature is so inconsistent, contradictory, and mysterious.

Through the ministrations and study of Christian Science many have turned with renewed hope to the teachings of Christ Jesus to find the true concept of the God whom he honored, and to learn the manner of his honoring. The nature of God and the way in which He is to be honored Jesus made very clear in his conversation with the woman of Samaria, as recorded in the Gospel of John. He said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." How fully Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, comprehended this when she gave that altogether satisfying definition of God to be found on page 465 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love"! Here is God revealed as possible to be understood and worthy to be honored in spiritual thinking and living.

God, being Spirit, can never be worshiped through the medium of matter, nor truly honored by means of symbols or ceremonies. To honor God as Spirit, Principle, the one cause, involves refusing honor to His suppositional opposite, matter. It entails denying to what is called matter any creative power, substance, law, or intelligence. How vain, then, is the search in the realm of matter for causation or law! Already many of the physical scientists of the world are seeing and acknowledging the illusory and elusive nature of their intense research. The simple teaching of Christ Jesus, presented to this age as Christian Science, the Science of Spirit, is awaiting the recognition of all mankind, which must eventually honor God through knowledge and demonstration of His spiritual laws.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"One thing thou lackest"