God's Offices

HELEN WARD BANKS

When boys and girls undertake in school the study of a material science, they receive a textbook on that subject and study it, day by day, in order that they may gain an understanding which will enable them to put into practice the knowledge they acquire. The textbook would be valueless unless it could prove its utility in practice. In the same way, when, in order to gain an understanding of the true facts about God and man, we begin the study of Christian Science, we start with its textbooks, the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy; and as we gain the understanding of this Science, we prove its truth by being able to practice it.

Both the Bible and Science and Health tell us that there is but one God; but they call this eternal, perfect, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent God by many names. The Bible reveals God as Life and Truth; declares that "God is a Spirit," and that "God is love." Science and Health adds to these other names,—Principle, Soul, Mind,—thus making the seven synonyms for God which we find grouped in Mrs. Eddy's definition of God in the chapter entitled "Recapitulation" (p. 465) in Science and Health. On page 331 of this book Mrs. Eddy tells us that Life, Truth, and Love are "the same in essence, though multiform in office." If this seems hard to understand, let us, as an illustration, think of a human father who at the same time also may be a son, a brother, an uncle, a nephew, a friend, a business man—one person in many offices. We can see that the qualities that make one a good father will show in every other relationship. In filling many different offices the father is not divided into separate parts, but his whole individuality appears in each office. So, when we consider the offices of God, we see that there could be no Love without Life, nor Life without Mind, nor Mind without Love, and that in His many offices God's complete and perfect nature meets and fills every need of His creation.

On page 243 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no sense of hatred. Life has no partnership with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God." It is easy to see that where Love is there can be no hate, with its attempted expressions of resentment, irritation, or revenge. In the presence of Truth, the uncertainty of error cannot abide. Life destroys the belief in the possibility of diseased action or inaction. Principle, the source of omnipresent and omnipotent good, knows nothing of evil. Spirit's reality proves the unreality of matter. Soul's senses, spiritual and joyous, silence the inharmonies or painful complaints of material sense. Mind always refutes the lying arguments of so-called mortal mind's attempts at false law.

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