Article September 17, 1955 Issue

"THE SECRET OF THY PRESENCE"

FLORENCE IRENE GUBBINS

"Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues," the Psalmist tells us (Ps. 31:20). Christian Science explains to us that only to material sense is God's presence a secret. To spiritual sense it is a tangible reality, attested in signs following; for the realization of God's allness proves the unreality of that which denies God's presence and power.

Christ Jesus dwelt in the secret of the divine presence, for he said (John 7:34), "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come." He never left that secret place, and from that place in consciousness he made his demonstration over death and the grave. Had he left it for one instant, had he admitted resentment or self-pity, he could not have conquered the hatred of his enemies.

The secret of God's allness is hidden from us until we perceive it to be true, until we have experienced its benefits in some measure. We cannot know God as All while we believe that evil is something. "The pride of man" may be said to be the belief in something besides God, a belief which seems tenacious because of overwhelming sense testimony. It requires courage, persistence, and trust in good to overcome the evidence of the material senses and to maintain the fact that only Love is real, that only good is true. The warfare between the physical senses and spiritual sense involves for us growth in Christian character, whereby we put on the garment of righteousness, or the wedding garment.

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