Article May 9, 1953 Issue

THE WORD

EVELYN F. HEYWOOD

Wherein lies the power of the Word? The power of the Word is the power of God and of His Christ. It is the Word which is, and is with God, made manifest in or as man and the universe. We can therefore take as correlative the following passages: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1), and the statement on pages 465 and 466 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, "Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe."

Man's function or office as the son of God is expression or reflection, and this is because he embodies the Christ ideal. Thus Jesus identified himself with the Christ, his spiritual selfhood. "The words that I speak unto you," he said, "they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Are the words we speak—our means of self-expression and therefore God-expression—the result of consecration to the ideal which Jesus lifted up for all mankind? Then this Biblical promise is being fulfilled in us (Deut. 30:14): "The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." In awareness of its presence, availability, and practical nature, in alertness and self-discipline, the Word will be revealed to enlighten, to heal, and to deliver.

What a prominent place is continually given to the Word of God in the Bible. "The word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. 12:28). The Word of God is the law, the interpretation, the evidence of God, reflected eternally in man and the universe. Human thought, illumined by Truth, inspired by Love, is expressed in gentleness and courtesy, but also in authority and conviction. Since the Word, God, includes all, then should not the purpose of words be to bear witness to Truth, and not, as they very often do, utterly ignore, contradict, or deny it? Since the Word is God, then actually only the words or ideas voicing the real and permanent, the beautiful and pure, can be of His parentage. Only that which confirms Truth and denies evil should have a place in our language. Mrs. Eddy speaks of blind words (Science and Health, p. 350): "Unless the works are comprehended which his words explained," she writes, "the words are blind."