Article September 12, 1942 Issue

The Expectancy of Good

BESS M. PANGBURN

One of the most valuable qualities we can express is the expectancy of good. The Scriptures teach the power of good, and Christian Science accepts this teaching, calling our attention to the fact that good is another name for God, the loving Father-Mother, who is constantly and tenderly caring for His children by bestowing upon them at all times an abundance of good. An expectant attitude of thought, anticipating the benefits which we are seeking, and which we should receive as the result of conforming to the operation of God's law, makes us more receptive of the good which is waiting to bless us. Human doubts and fears limit the acceptance and acknowledgment of good in daily experience. Therefore we must rise above fear, cast out all doubt of the omnipotence of good, and overcome the tendency to give power, in belief, to evil, by holding steadfastly to the great truth that good is the only power.

When we turn to God for help, we must be sure that we are expecting Principle to operate in all our thinking and affairs. Whether the difficulty for which we are seeking help be physical, mental, or financial, we must expect the healing to result. In seeking treatment in Christian Science it is very important for us to look for the healing, expecting it to appear. And in endeavoring to help someone else, the student of Christian Science must declare the allness of good and the nothingness of evil, and then wait patiently and expectantly for the operation of the law of God to bring about harmony.

Jesus showed his appreciation of the expectancy of good when he said to the blind man, "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole;" while to the father who begged him to heal his son he answered, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." And to Jairus, whose servants came to him while he was seeking Jesus' help and told him that his little daughter had died, Jesus said, "Be not afraid, only believe." Then he accompanied Jairus to his home, where he found the house filled with sympathetic friends and neighbors who, having accepted the mesmeric belief of death, had come to mourn with the parents. Jesus rebuked them, saying that the child was not dead, but they "laughed him to scorn;" so he put them all forth and took only the mother and father of the little girl and his own disciples with him into the room, and then wakened her out of the mesmerism of death. Because Jesus knew the allness of God, good, and had no fear of evil—because he did not doubt even for an instant the power of Truth to heal the sick and raise the dead—he could go forward confidently, expectantly, sure of success.

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