Article May 16, 1953 Issue

"TO INDIVIDUALIZE INFINITE POWER"

AUDREY NEWITT

In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 160), "To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science." Throughout the Bible we find undeniable proof of infinite power individualized in the experience of the prophets, of Jesus, and of many others who endeavored to keep "human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal."

In spite of the cruel threats of King Nebuchadnezzar, the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, remained constant to their God. Their consciousness of the omnipotence of God, good, was not in the least shaken by rigid demands and a dictatorial decree. They remained steadfast in the face of what seemed to human sense sure and certain destruction. With calm, confident assurance of the presence of God, with immovable allegiance to Him, they stood ready and prepared to prove this reliance. Our Leader states in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 209), "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God." Was not this spiritual sense, this "conscious, constant capacity to understand God," the Hebrew captives' weapon of defense?

Truth does not fluctuate, nor does the real spiritual perception of Truth fluctuate. The burning, fiery furnace could in no wise change or diminish Truth or the true spiritual perception of it. The Hebrew captives' consciousness of God as eternal Life and as infinite, ever-present Love was unassailable. Their steadfast knowing, indeed, individualized infinite power, and they were safe. Their clear, unfettered recognition of the Christ, Truth, even while in the midst of the fiery furnace, was outwardly made manifest in a form cognizable to King Nebuchadnezzar himself. He said (Dan. 3:25), "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." The presence of the Christ was so clearly manifest that the king reversed his decree thereafter, and ordered that nothing should be said amiss regarding the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

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