Article January 18, 1941 Issue

"Doers of the word"

HERBERT W. COCHRAN

In his thanksgiving and prayer, David said to the people, "Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?" And we are told, "Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord." This may be taken to mean, since God is good, that service must be consecrated to the accomplishment of good works. The preponderance of human thought seems to be enslaved to matter rather than consecrated to Spirit, and this subjection results in sin, sickness, death, instead of intelligent service to good.

The question is often asked, If God is good and all-powerful, why am I suffering, failing, or enslaved? James admonishes us, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." So we deceive ourselves when we do not think Godlike thoughts and serve God to the best of our present understanding; and in a state of deception error can seem true. God, divine Love, does not cause man, His image, to suffer, falter, or err; and Christian Science shows that these things do not occur in real being, but only in mortal mind, in deception.

Christian Science inspires spiritual thinking, refutes the hypothetical notion of an existence separate from immortal Life, and blesses human existence by destroying the illusion of an evil influence or intelligence. We experience the healing, protecting, and directing power of divine Principle when we acknowledge good as all-power and resist the temptation to believe that evil, error, has influence, power to control, or manifestation. On page 253 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes, "If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you can at once change your course and do right."

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