Editorial March 17, 1951 Issue

GOD'S INFINITUDE MADE PRACTICAL

Richard J. Davis

Many people will agree theoretically with the teaching of Christian Science that God is One and infinite, but to make this great truth practical we need to understand something at least of what infinity really means. Infinity is an important word in Christian Science. It is clear that we cannot have an infinite God and a finite, limited man; otherwise God would have a partial and limited image of Himself. The moment God, divine Mind, is acknowledged as infinite we begin to cast off finite letters and understand man's true selfhood as the infinite, ever-unfolding idea, or image, of Mind, rising from a limitless and immeasurable basis.

Christian Science teaches that man is the ever-unfolding idea of Love, God's own idea of Himself. It declares that man unfolds God's infinite nature and therefore, because he is reflection, will be forever revealing the infinite qualities of strength, energy, capacity, vision, and inspiration. Referring to this, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 258), "The human capacities are enlarged and perfected in proportion as humanity gains the true conception of man and God." In view of this, to admit limitation about oneself or anyone is a specific deterrent to progress. In Christian Science we see that, as reflection, man is just as good as God is good, because he is good in evidence; he is just as pure as God is pure, because he is the expression of the purity of Spirit; he is just as free as God free, because God's very being is expressed in freedom; he is just as perfect as God is perfect, because perfection underlies all that is real.

Perhaps a suggestion has come to one of incapacity, inability, or failure. Is this the truth of being? Can this be true of one infinite God and His exact and perfect expression? No. Christian Science declares that it is the lie of false belief, the imposed suggestion of mortal mind, which must be denied any identification with man as God's manifestation. On page 128 of Science and Health the author says: "The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, inclusive of man. From this it follows that business men and cultured scholars have found that Christian Science enhances their endurance and mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity."

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