Article July 26, 1941 Issue

The Great First Cause

Herbert L. Standeven

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in the article entitled "One Cause and Effect" in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 25), states, "That there is but one God or Life, one cause and one effect, is the multum in parvo of Christian Science; and to my understanding it is the heart of Christianity, the religion that Jesus taught and demonstrated." In her writings our Leader has consistently set forth the fact that there is one God or Life, and that this one God is the great First Cause of all real existence. This absolute truth is the foundation stone upon which the Christian Science movement is built.

The nature of Deity and the true creation has been a subject of speculation throughout the ages. That God is Spirit, and is the one all-inclusive, and ever-present cause, is now being continually demonstrated in Christian Science, and this demonstration of the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of the one God includes the healing of "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." The demonstration of this healing power is the answer to all human speculation as to the nature of Deity and the true cause of creation.

It is fundamental that there can be no effect unless there is a cause for the effect. This being true, it must necessarily follow that there is a First Cause, and this First Cause, Christian Science shows, has always existed. From this First Cause all effects have emanated. The First Cause also is all-inclusive; it includes within its realm everything that proceeds from it. Nothing exists except that which proceeds from the great First Cause, and is inseparable from it. Did not God say to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14); and did He not also reveal Himself to John in the words, recorded in Revelation (1:9), "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,... which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty"? These are absolute statements of the primal existence of the one God, the great First Cause, self-existent, eternal, infinite, all-powerful, and ever present.

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