A Loving Requirement

J. LOUISE CARTER

Many a spiritual meaning, hidden in seemingly obscure passages of the Bible, is disclosed to students of Christian Science for their advancement in understanding Truth. It is both instructive and helpful to perceive, for instance, the practicability of these words in Ecclesiastes: "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." This true knowing enables us to love Him so understandingly that we refrain from doing aught in word or deed that would be a departure from His expressed purpose. The Biblical passage continues, "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past." When we understand God to be the only creator, infinite good, eternal Life, it is comparatively easy to comprehend the truth of these quoted words, and to enjoy the spiritual peace which comes to the perturbed thought while reading them. But we gain further illumination by a deeper or more intensive study of the last phrase—"God requireth that which is past."

Through scientific thinking we know, not only that Truth, God, heals, but that He heals by revealing the spiritual fact that, as He creates and maintains man in His own image—therefore necessarily perfect—man is today perfect, immortal, harmonious. What, then, of the time intervening between the beginning of the dream of material life, substance, and intelligence and the hour when through Christian Science one was led to discern the reality of Spirit and spiritual truth? During that interim was not man in reality still perfect? Yes, and therefore "God requireth that which is past." Our real identity, the real man of God's creating, is and always was perfect, healthy, joyous. He never was a sick or discordant mortal. Then let us rid ourselves of the general illusive beliefs of fear, discord, and disease, and realize, in unity with Truth, that man was never sick, diseased, unhappy, lone-some or homesick.

What is Christian Science healing? Is it not being aroused to see one's true self as God's likeness, and to discern the love and goodness of God, in that He never sent to a single one of His children, His beloved ideas, any sickness or sin, sorrow or pain? Does it not mean we are perceiving that, as God is almighty, "the infinite All-power" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 231), there exists no thing, person, power, or belief which can alter His faultless creation? God's children reflect the intelligence wherewith to acknowledge the fact of the case, namely, that all along the path of existence, from the so-called "beginning" to the "now," without a suggestion of hiatus, neither sorrow, sickness, nor any phase of material belief has even so much as touched God's image, reflection, or likeness.

Because God is all Life, Truth, Love, we are justified in declaring positively and steadfastly that God is, always has been, and ever will be our Life. There never was an instant when that statement was not true. Not alone does divine Life own "each waiting hour," as our beloved Leader writes (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 389; Poems, p. 4), but divine Life owns all the hours that to us are past, all that preceded our awakening to some understanding of Truth and Love.

In reality, throughout what seem to material sense to be past hours God was just as present, just as true, just as loving and life-giving as before and since; and because of this wonderful blessing we should rejoice with praise and thanksgiving. We appreciate the Preacher's reminder that "God requireth that which is past;" and as we hold to the words of David, "O Lord our God, all ... cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own," we gratefully accept from divine Love His gift of eternal being, which holds in everlasting perfection the so-called past, present, and future. Given in a marginal reference of the Bible is another translation of this requirement, which in place of "that which is past" reads that which is "driven away"—thereby strengthening the text; for are not mortals continually seeking to drive away false suggestions of unhappy experiences in the past?

How often a remark has been heard similar to the following: Oh, if I could only forget the past! But should not we rather say: It is imperative to interpret the past in the right way? It is incumbent upon us to recognize eternal perfection. A delusion which is "driven away" may return again; but a delusion scientifically recognized at its correct valuation, namely, as an unreality, vanishes, thereby being seen as powerless.

This spiritual demand that God, eternal good, requires what is called the past as well as the present and future is helpful alike to practitioner and patient, for its fulfillment serves to bring to light the harmonious result promised through Jeremiah as "an expected end." Cares, worries, fears, are excluded from thought—yes, even destroyed— when students of the Science of being perceive the import of our revered Leader's words (Science and Health, p. 44) that Jesus' "three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit