Editorial April 18, 1931 Issue

Understanding God

Clifford P. Smith

Why do Christian Scientists insist so strongly on the importance of understanding God? This is a question often asked by inquirers into Christian Science.

The importance of understanding God results from His relation, or the absence of His relation, to every other subject of human thought, whether it be real or merely seeming. The beginning of a scientific comprehension of all things and the beginning of a scientific mental practice is the idea that God is "the divine Principle of all that really is" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 275). This idea can be expressed in other words; but, however it may be correctly stated, it is exceedingly important to every intelligent person, and particularly to inquirers into Christian Science. Further, it is equally important to the most advanced student.

In dictionaries, "principle" is defined as cause, origin, source; essence, ultimate element, that which is inherent in anything, determining its nature. These definitions apply fully to God as the Principle of all that is real. There is much more to be said about divine Principle; but, in Christian Science, the idea of God as the Principle of true consciousness, and of everything that consciousness should accept as true or real, is the beginning of the spiritual understanding that contributes most directly to individual and general salvation.

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Editorial
Fulfilling the Law
April 18, 1931
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