Article May 5, 1934 Issue

Magnifying Good

OLIVE G. AUSTIN

"O magnify the Lord with me," cries the Psalmist; and throughout the Scriptures men are bidden to magnify God. Christian Science explains simply and lucidly why this counsel is of practical value and is something more important than a merely commendable attitude on the part of a Christian. Beginning with the fundamental statement that God is All and "there is none else beside him," Christian Science logically sustains this position through revelation, reason, and demonstration.

The student of Christian Science bends his efforts to bring out this fact in his experience. He acknowledges that God is good, is All, and starts with the recognition of good as the only presence and power. Trials of his faith in this basic truth only serve to strengthen and encourage him, and his belief in evil begins to wane. In every situation good is positive, and even the least sense of this is concrete; while evil is negative, and can never be anything other than a delusion. Where some human problem has to be worked out, the recognition of the good already manifested is all-important, even though this may appear small in the midst of discord and fear. To the end that it may displace the error in human consciousness the good experienced must be acknowledged and magnified. In proportion as this is done, wrong conditions will disappear.

A much-loved Bible story tells of a widow who went to the prophet Elisha for help. Such was her plight that a creditor was about to take away her two sons to be bondmen in lieu of a debt for which she seemed to have no means of making payment. One can picture the prophet listening compassionately to her tale of distress, waiting for that break in the clouds of mortal sense where the light of Truth could penetrate, and finding it in her response to the question he put to her, "Tell me, what hast thou in the house?" To this she replied that she had "not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil." Elisha appraised the woman's recognition of what she already possessed as the vantage point from which she could start to solve her problem. The good already cognized must be appreciated and magnified; and to this task the woman, with the help of the prophet, proved herself equal. With the increased sense of the good she possessed, came the fading out of her consciousness of the fear of the debt, which was duly liquidated. Elisha's knowledge of spiritual values enabled him to apprehend the solution of the problem, and the human footsteps required.

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