Article February 10, 1951 Issue

PROMISE

JOHN H. HOAGLAND

The Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy are overflowing with promises of abundant good, here and now, for those who diligently seek to understand and demonstrate spiritual reality. The very nature and relationship of God and man, as revealed in Christian Science, constitute a richly satisfying promise, together with its continuing fulfillment.

The prophet Isaiah, receptive to divine inspiration, recorded this beautiful and assuring promise: "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa. 55:10, 11). And Mary Baker Eddy, the great Leader of the Christian Science movement, declares: "The promises will be fulfilled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 55).

The making of a promise involves for the giver the desire and the capacity to keep it, and for the receiver the trust and confident expectancy that it will be fulfilled. Through the centuries men have been making promises to each other individually and collectively. The measure in which these promises have been kept or broken has also been the measure of human peace or the lack of it, human well-being or the absence of it, human progress and brotherhood or the dearth of them. More often than not, the promises of men and nations to each other are silent and implicit rather than spoken or recorded. The existence of a national government constitutes a promise to its people of public welfare and the common good. Thus the interrelations of national governments are a promise of increasing world unity and amity.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

MAN INHERITS ONLY GOOD