Article December 19, 1953 Issue

AN ACT OF GOD

WALLACE H. LELAND

We often hear the expression, "It was an act of God," used in connection with some phenomenon, usually disastrous, which is unexplainable according to human reasoning. How completely unreasonable this is! Can God, the first and only cause, "the Creator of the ends of the earth" (Isa. 40: 28), from whom comes all good, be held accountable for disaster? Since mortal mind and the physical forces expressed by this so-called mind are one, these material evidences of disaster must be the outward expression of mortal mind, never originating in God, the source of all good.

Mary Baker Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 293), "There is no vapid fury of mortal mind—expressed in earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity— and this so-called mind is self-destroyed." This statement by our Leader indicates clearly that these apparent manifestations of disaster are experiences of mortal mind, and that if we keep our minds filled completely with Truth and Love, and with the realization that good is the only reality, these experiences will have no place in which to occur.

An act of God may be defined as the activity of God, good, or God's activity. Any activity of God must be in accordance with God's law, which is a law of good, and always in harmony with Principle. Therefore, an act of God can never be expressed in aught but good. God's activity can never be expressed through evil, lawlessness, hate, sin, disease, death.

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