Article September 1, 1956 Issue

GOD'S IDEAS MEET THE HUMAN NEED

FEARN E. MUNSTER

The question is sometimes asked, "How does one know that an idea is from God?" And we may answer by asking: "Is the idea good? Is it good for all, or just for one?" Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 206), "In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply." "One" and "all" we find to be good measuring sticks. For each of us must work out his own salvation in the light of blessing all.

God is Spirit, and man, His image and likeness, is therefore spiritual. All that God made is good and is spiritual, never material, as the first chapter of Genesis makes clear. Then how can anything material come from God? It cannot. "But," one may protest, "Mrs. Eddy says in 'The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany' (p. 238), 'God is understandable, knowable, and applicable to every human need.'" Divine Love does meet human needs when human thought is aligned with the divine.

God's activity is strictly in the realm of Spirit. His all-knowing intelligence is reflected by man. Since only the good is real or eternal, God knows nothing but good, just as light is all brightness and sees only the good of its own light. Darkness cannot exist where light is. Similarly error cannot exist where God is, and God is everywhere, for He is infinite, the only real power. There is no life apart from Him.

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