Article May 11, 1940 Issue

The Only Power Is Good

ELIZABETH L. HANSEN

When Jesus was arraigned before Pilate, the Roman procurator, who was invested with authority, and who said to him, "Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" he replied, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." Undoubtedly, he who had spoken with authority to sin and disease, and who at a single command had calmed the raging sea, knew that power is of God and is wholly good. His understanding of the nature and power of God had revealed to him, and had enabled him to prove, that evil is powerless.

The indisputable truth regarding the omnipotence of good and the consequent powerlessness of evil is iterated and reiterated in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." On page 327 Mary Baker Eddy writes, "To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian Science seem peremptory; but mortals are hastening to learn that Life is God, good, and that evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or the divine economy." And gradually the students of Christian Science are gaining an understanding of this fact and demonstrating it. When confronted by overwhelming conditions and circumstances which would compel them to believe that power is vested in mortal mind or matter, they are learning to stand unswervingly by the truth, learning to deny the suggestions of evil and to declare the power of God, good, to be omnipotent and omnipresent.

During the absence of his employer, who was journeying to inaccessible places, a young man who had been given power of attorney to conduct the affairs of the business found himself facing a difficult situation. A friend of his employer who had lent the firm a large sum of money secured by a promissory note, informed the young man that he needed the money and would demand immediate payment. The young man had been present when the note was given, and he knew that there had been a verbal agreement between the two men that payment was to be made in merchandise. A local bank also had lent the firm a large amount of money, and he knew that should the bank now require payment on the note it held, the result would be ruinous to the business, and the seventy employees under him would lose their positions.

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