Article July 26, 1941 Issue

The Womanhood of God Acknowledged

Florence Irene Gubbins

Until recent years Mohammedan women were uniformly veiled and subject to their husbands, and in many cases were treated as chattels, as they still are in most primitive civilizations. Over the doors of a university for women in Wisconsin these words are written: "The progress of a country can be measured by its treatment of its women." Yet even in the most advanced civilizations womanhood will be veiled until the qualities of divine motherhood are expressed in tender solicitude for our fellows, as with the love of a mother for her child. When each one's welfare is as precious to us as is the welfare of a child to its mother, then the veil for us will be taken away, and we shall "with open face" behold "the glory of the Lord," for half the beauties of creation are hid from him who has not yet perceived the motherhood of God.

To see God as Mother is a subjective experience. To realize it is to become one with it. To realize God as Mother is to embody motherhood in the true spiritual sense of the word. Is it not this apprehension of God that enabled Mary Baker Eddy to be the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science? Beholding God as Mother, as well as Father, she individualized this concept throughout all her glorious forty years of founding and establishing Christian Science in the world-embracing activities of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, each of these activities expressing something of divine motherhood. She herself has said of her Church Manual, "It stands alone, uniquely adapted to form the budding thought and hedge it about with divine Love" (Art. XXXV, Sect. 1). In the early days of the Christian Science movement, Mrs. Eddy was known to her followers by the name of Mother. That she changed this title to that of Leader was because of public misunderstanding; but no public misunderstanding could change the fact that in a unique manner Mary Baker Eddy earned this title because through her discovery the divine motherhood of God was revealed.

On page 268 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "In this revolutionary period, like the shepherd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with Goliath." The qualities that are the exact opposite of the carnal mind alone can overcome it. Only love can overcome hate. Only purity can overcome sensuality. Only the meekness of divine reflection can overcome the arrogance of mortal will power, which would claim to be able to create something apart from God. David slew Goliath with weapons which were utterly different from his challenger's. Goliath had been using his material weapons for years, and was no doubt skilled in the use of them; but David knew little or nothing of arms and armor.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Spiritual Vision and Understanding