Satisfaction

George Shaw Cook

In the one hundred and forty-third Psalm, David makes use of the following simile: "My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land." The aptness of the figure is appreciated by all who have lived in a desert country, and even to those in other parts of the world who have experienced long-continued periods of drought. In both cases the earth almost seems to cry out for rain and for relief from the heat of the sun. And, similarly, the hearts of human beings long for the spiritual refreshment which comes from knowledge of God.

The desire to know God, infinite good, divine Love, is shared by many who have not yet defined to themselves the nature of their longing. They may believe that their need is for matter or for some material pleasure or comfort, but at the bottom of their unsatisfied desire, though they may not yet realize it, is the reaching out in thought for something higher than themselves.

When one has reached the point in his human experience where he is convinced that material things and human achievements do not truly and permanently satisfy, he is ready for the blessing promised by Christ Jesus in that part of his Sermon on the Mount known as the Beatitudes, where he said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."

That the thirst for righteousness is blessed and rewarded has been proved by many students of Christian Science who have learned truly to seek God, divine Mind, through Christ, Truth, as it has been revealed in this age by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. They have learned, perhaps through bitter experience, that something more than human philosophy and scholastic theology is needed to give them the understanding of God as divine Love, which alone meets every human need.

On page 2 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes: "Are we benefited by praying? Yes, the desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void." However, she continues on the same page: "Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it. Goodness attains the demonstration of Truth."

Thus it will be seen that while desire to know God—thirst after righteousness—is a step in the right direction, something further is needed if that thirst is to be quenched. The next step, therefore, is to gain the demonstrable knowledge of God as Principle, as invariable, impartial, divine Love, which enables one to understand that it is the will and purpose of God to provide his idea, man, with all that is necessary to his happiness, health, and harmony. Not only this, but the understanding of God's perfect nature as Father-Mother, the creative Principle of spiritual man, reveals the fact that man is already and always provided with all that is required for his contentment, satisfaction, and well-being. He exists always at the standpoint of completeness, expressing the wholeness or entireness of the divine nature.

Consciousness of the perfection of being, as it exists in divine Mind, satisfies as nothing else can. It leaves no room for unfulfilled desire, no sense of hunger or thirst, no belief of lack, no illusion of incompleteness or imperfection. It confirms the words of the Psalmist, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

Man created in the likeness of God is, obviously, like his creator. A likeness or reflection must always express the nature of its original, else it would not be a likeness. The Bible tells us (Genesis 1:26), "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" and the record continues in the next verse, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him."

Mrs. Eddy, on page 588 of Science and Health, says, "There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence." Man as the image or likeness of "I, or Us," necessarily reflects the qualities of that "I, or Us," and therefore consciously expressed the attributes of wholeness, completeness, satisfaction, contentment, holiness, joy, peace, and perfection.

However, mortals, including students of Christian Science who as yet are only working toward the realization and attainment of that divine perfection, need still to strive daily for more spiritual understanding, and they will not be likely to gain it unless they habitually entertain that "thirst after righteousness" which the Master promised would be quenched, and of which our Leader wrote (Poems, p. 79):

"The centuries break, the earth-bound wake,
God's glorified!
Who doth His will—His likeness still—
Is satisfied."

George Shaw Cook

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