Article November 14, 1953 Issue

REALIZING GOD'S PRESENCE

RICHARD P. PALMER

The realization that God is the only presence conquers errors of every sort. One may gain this realization through Christian Science treatment, or prayer. One's first steps in scientific prayer generally consist of the simple process of affirming the truth and denying error. Though simple, these steps accomplish the separation of material beliefs from spiritual facts and lead to the realization of the truth which heals sin, sickness, and other ills. One sometimes realizes the presence of God without any mental argument, but at other times the knowledge of how to argue scientifically proves most helpful.

Christ Jesus' parable of the tares and the wheat affords an interesting illustration of scientific separation. You will recall that Jesus declared (Matt. 13:24, 25): "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." When his servants discovered the tares, they sought permission to gather them up, but he said (verses 29, 30): "Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."

Everyone may begin now to sow spiritual ideas in his consciousness through study of the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, through reading the Christian Science periodicals, and through attending Christian Science church services and lectures. These spiritual ideas will propagate because of their own inherent vitality. The tares of error cannot hinder them, because error cannot touch Truth. Mary Baker Eddy explains this in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" where she writes (p. 300): "The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the immutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Science separates the wheat from the tares, through the realization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness."

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