Article May 15, 1954 Issue

INCREASING STRENGTH

KATHRYN PAULSON

Throughout the centuries there have been spiritually-minded individuals who recognized that God is the source of all strength; and in relying upon this truth they have been sustained through the most difficult experiences. For instance, during his leadership of the children of Israel, Moses continually emphasized the need of acknowledging God as the eternal Giver of comfort, supply, and strength. The reward of his radical confidence in omnipotence is graphically described in these words (Deut. 34:7): "Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." Surely here is proof that strength and activity are never curtailed by time or matter. Rather are they the proportionate expression of our acceptance of God as Life, as the unchanging Principle of all existence.

The master Christian, Christ Jesus, was unswervingly faithful in teaching and demonstrating that the source of all health, harmony, and immortality is God. He knew that matter neither contributes to nor detracts from one's well-being, although it may seem to. Disease and decrepitude he recognized as illusions, as misstatements about man, who, according to the first chapter of the Bible, is made in God's own image and likeness. He knew that true strength is not contingent upon either rest and sleep or number of years.

This knowledge gave Jesus the necessary spiritual energy to meet all circumstances with poise and dominion. Even in the garden of Gethsemane, facing the coming ordeals of trial and crucifixion, he sought refreshment through revivifying prayer, rather than through sleep, and we read in the Gospel of Luke (22:43), "There appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him." Such heavenly inspiration is eternally present and can furnish whatever resurgence of vigor and energy we today may need to accomplish our daily tasks. Christian Science teaches that God is Life, that this Life is the sustaining force of man's existence, and that the deathless reality of being is manifested humanly as unwearied energy and incorruptible health. The joyous strength which is man's heritage from his Father cannot be invaded by the material beliefs of weakness, fatigue, or apathy; it is maintained by the strength of Principle, sustained by the purity of Love, and rooted in the stability of Truth.

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