Article January 26, 1952 Issue

UTILIZING THE DIVINE POWER

ROBERT WILLIAM BAYLES

When Christ Jesus declared (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," he disclosed the way to use divine power. To believe on him means to understand God and His creation, which the Christ reveals. To Jesus, God was ever present, all-powerful, the unchanging Principle that supplies, protects, and sustains its creation in perpetual harmony. To hold one's thought steadfastly to this spiritual fact and conform one's action to it is a rule in Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy makes this plain on page 69 of "Miscellaneous Writings," where, after explaining that "Christian Science is the unfolding of true metaphysics; that is, of Mind, or God, and His attributes," she declares: "Science rests on Principle and demonstration. The Principle of Christian Science is divine. Its rule is, that man shall utilize the divine power." This rule is imperative.

How unlimited is Jesus' promise in the same chapter of John's Gospel, "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." Prayers are often for good things, such as healing forgiveness, greater abundance, strength, and yet they are sometimes ineffectual. Why? Because asking in Christ's name requires the surrender of false, personal sense, which sees man as a sick, sinful, or needy mortal. When lack, due to the false sense of man apart from God, is conquered, then asking is in Christ's name, in the Christlike understanding which knows that man is at all times inseparable from eternal Life, immutable Truth, and divine Love. To differentiate clearly between man's immortal being and the counterfeit sense of mortal life when we pray and never to be mesmerized into even a temporary acceptance of the belief that there can be a mixture of the two is asking in Christ's name. The consciousness of Immanuel, or "God with us," engenders abundant health, happiness, and success.

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 111), "The Principle of divine metaphysics is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utilization of the power of Truth over error; its rules demonstrate its Science." The rules of Science all point to the Master's way of demonstration, demonstration based on prayer. So prayer, or Christian Science treatment, is the method by which mankind become conscious of the inexhaustible power of God. The power of Truth over error is the sovereignty of good over evil, the dominion of reality over unreality, the supremancy of Spirit over matter.

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