Editorial September 9, 1933 Issue

The One Power and Presence

Violet Ker Seymer

The presence of God is identical with the supreme power of good, and both are available to each one in every hour. This supreme power and presence, being infinite, must of necessity be indivisible, indisputable, unrivaled. When he finds himself besieged by blasphemous suggestions of the opposing presence and power of evil and matter, the Christian Scientist's refuge lies in allegiance to God, to Spirit. Mrs. Eddy writes (No and Yes, p. 18), "Blasphemy rebukes not the godless lie that denies Him as All-in-all, nor does it ascribe to Him all presence, power, and glory." True worship, then, is allied to spirituality and progress, and blasphemy to materiality and failure. In true worship there is purity of thought and spiritual dominion.

Christian Science rebukes the "godless lie" claiming to be externalized as disease and sin, as painful or pleasurable physical sensation. It proclaims and is proving, step by step, the scientific fact that righteousness, intelligence, and health are at all times the spiritual characteristics of man in God's image. It further rebukes the "godless lie" which asserts that man's birthright of harmony and dominion, although actual, is at present veiled from us by the deceptions of material sense. The scientific rejoinder is that in the infinite realm of Mind—the abiding place of man—material sense has no presence and no power, no voice and no auditor. Belief in the power and presence of mortal mind, even as hypothetical, involves denial of the actual presence of infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation. The enlightened Christian, being a faithful and courageous worshiper of God, "in spirit and in truth," is learning to dissent from this apostasy and its sequence of afflictions.

The student of Christian Science finds it inspiring to dwell on each of the seven synonyms for God enumerated on page 465 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, for they impart to him a full sense of the divine presence. It is his endeavor to realize that each one of these synonyms for God finds expression through man. By this discernment of true identity he learns to worship God spiritually, with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and in this true worship required of him by the commandments finds protection.

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