Article July 31, 1954 Issue

GOD IS EVER PRESENT

ROBERT STANLEY ROSS

"God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 471 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." "Hence," she then goes on to say, "the spirituality of the universe is the only fact of creation." In the foregoing passages and elsewhere in her writings, Mrs. Eddy makes it crystal clear that the teaching and practice of Christian Science are based upon this simple, scientific basis that God, infinite good, is the only real presence and power, notwithstanding material sense testimony.

In praise of infinite, ever-present good, the Psalmist sang (Ps. 139: 7–10): "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I fleefrom thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Are not these words intended to convey the thought that God, the divine Principle of being, ever-present good, is available through righteous prayer at all times and under all circumstances? Some time ago, for example, the teacher of a Christian Science Sunday School class was discussing with her pupils the subject of God's ever-presence. She had pointed out that there is no place where God is not; whereupon one of the pupils asked, "Is God in hospitals, asylums, and prisons?" The teacher waited for an answer. Presently a little fellow replied with conviction, "Of course He is, but they don't know it."

Is not all mankind in bondage more or less to the same spiritual ignorance? Could anyone be tempted to do wrong, to be unhappy, ill, unemployed, or in want, save by accepting as real a sense of separation from the divine All-power? Human discord of every sort is evidence of material-mindedness, that is, of disbelief in God's nearness; hence, all mankind needs to be saved, not from evil as entity, but from belief in and fear of the absence of God, who is ever-present good.

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