Article January 10, 1942 ISSUE

"God is the sum total of the universe"

MABEL SPICER GILL

God is All, and He is Love. Where, then, is there room for His unlikeness? Where and what are hatred, discord, sin disease, and death? Throughout his ministry Christ Jesus pointed out the entireness, perfection, and coordination of the works of the heavenly Father. And Mary Baker Eddy, his faithful follower, in setting forth her discovery of Christian Science, consistently reiterates the totality and harmony of the creator and of the spiritual universe. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes (p. 240 ), "In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above what it reflects, all is one grand concord."

In a notable address, delivered in Chicago on June 13, 1888, Mrs. Eddy declared (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 105,106 ), "God is the sum total of the universe," continuing with the query, "Then what and where are sin, sickness, and death?" The Bible contains an explanation of the phenomena of the false material sense of creation which arises from an unreal claim or mist, and not from the creator, who is "the sum total of the universe." The Scriptural version of the origin of the material creation as taking place in a mist is given in the second chapter of Genesis, whereas the account of the original spiritual creation, given in the first chapter of Genesis, reveals God as creating all and finding everything "very good." The creations arising from the mist, appearing as hating, sinning, warring, sick, and dying mortals, furnish the mythical history of error; whereas God's real, spiritual children are eternally safe, sound, and sinless, abiding in the everlasting unity of Love and Truth.

The destruction of this confusing, distorting ambient was foretold by Isaiah: "And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations." The advent of Christ Jesus ushered in the spiritual light that was to disperse the mists befogging all peoples and nations. And the rending of the veil of the temple at the time of the crucifixion illustrated the doom of delusion and mystification.

With the discovery and founding of Christian Science, the dispersion of false teachings and doctrines was greatly accelerated and the perception and understanding of the real nature of God and man proportionately increased. Inasmuch as Truth, through eternal law, uncovers all falsity, disclosing its nothingness, this dispersion will continue till no supposition of error remains, and God is proved to be infinite Love, "the sum total of the universe," to whom belong all government, all might and power, all cause and effect.

The spiritual universe is one, the infinite emanation of infinite Mind, Spirit, the great First Cause. A dictionary defines "universe," in part, as "all created things viewed as constituting one system or whole." The derivation of the word "universe," from the Latin unus (one) and vertere, versum (turned), signifying, "turned into one, combined into one whole," indicates oneness and allness. The real or spiritual universe, fully expressing the character and volition of the great First Cause, consequently excludes anything extraneous, dissimilar, or adverse. Thus Love is logically shown to be the center and circumference of all actual being, the only real creator. Hence, the present world-wide attempt of evil to usurp the divine prerogative of infinite Love, divine Mind, by human will and material force has no actuality to substantiate or to perpetuate evil, no law, no power, no intelligence, no reality.

To the omnipotent, all-loving, all-providing Father-Mother God belong the entire loyalty, affection, allegiance, and service of His children. Various human institutions which develop as means of assisting in overcoming handicaps and limitations, and in working out human problems, are sometimes mistakenly looked upon as an end in themselves. The Master once found it expedient to remind certain Pharisees that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." The Christian Science church is understood by Christian Scientists to be an institution which proves its value in uplifting, healing, and redeeming mankind. Step by step, as the student of Christian Science through demonstration gains in dominion, clarity, freedom, strength, and assurance, he becomes single-minded, manifesting the oneness of Mind, and ceasing to be confused by mortal mists of uncertainty, doubt, indecision, anxiety, ignorance, and other false beliefs. Gradually he proves his spiritual identity as the perfect, indestructible child of God, immune to false, subversive influences. Thus does all-conquering Love, understood and lived, enable one to prove that God, good, is in truth "the sum total of the universe."

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