Editorial February 27, 1932 Issue

God's Good Will

Duncan Sinclair

In a world where suffering sometimes appears to be much in evidence the questions are often asked, Can it be God's will that men should have to endure the pangs of disease or the ravages of sin? Is there not something far wrong in a state of existence where men seem to have to submit to conditions which they themselves would be incapable of imposing on one another? It cannot be denied that suffering, sorrow, and sin are far from desirable; and it certainly is not God's will that men should be subject to them. It is all wrong to lay the blame of the world's distress on the Supreme Being; for as the Old Testament, apostrophizing Deity, has it, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity."

Christian Science throws a great light on the question of the will of God and on the problem of human misery. In this Science God is acknowledged to be infinite good; and from this premise the conclusion is correctly drawn that good alone is real. This is the same as saying that there are not two real powers in existence, good and evil, but only one real power, good. Evil, thus, has neither reality nor power. As this is acknowledged, it is seen that the will of God must be good, altogether good, and that evil, so called, never enters in any degree into the divine purpose. In other words, God's law is that His will, His good will, shall be perpetually done; and since God is omnipresent, His perfect will must be active everywhere.

Again, Christian Science teaches that God is Mind. And since Mind expresses itself in ideas, man must be God's idea. Hence, as God's idea, man is always at-one with God. From this it follows that the real man lives in constant obedience to the will of God; or, to put it somewhat differently, the will of God is continually being made manifest through man. Think what this means. It signifies that the real spiritual self of each of us is always under the good will of God, subject to perfect intelligence, perfect wisdom; never for a moment separate from divine Love; never for an instant apart from infinite Life. The fact that man lives under the ever active will of God means that health, happiness,—every good thing,—are assured him, even eternal life itself.

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