"GOOD IS THE REWARD"

MAY SMITH

There is no one who does not desire good, who does not need good, who would not experience good. Mankind is continually looking for its appearance, and many are searching for health, right places in the business world, greater supplies of this or that, relief from pain and suffering and from the feeling that life is not worth living.

Is there any escape from pain, suffering, sin, and all the evils which seem to beset mankind? Yes, there is a way out, the way which our Master, Christ Jesus, taught and which Christian Science reveals to this age.

In the Scriptures, God is shown to be Life, Truth, and Love, and in Christian Science He is understood to be the only creator, who made all and beheld it as very good. Evil has no place in this divine creation, a record of which is given in the first chapter of Genesis.

In "Pulpit and Press," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 4): "Who lives in good, lives also in God, — lives in all Life, through all space. His is an individual kingdom, his diadem a crown of crowns." And she continues: "His existence is deathless, forever unfolding its eternal Principle. Wait patiently on illimitable Love, the lord and giver of Life. Reflect this Life, and with it cometh the full power of being.'"

He who lives in good is eternally conscious of the workings of the divine power within himself. Jesus continually turned to his Father in prayer; he turned away from the material evidence of sin, sickness, and death, confronting him on every side, to be refreshed with spiritual inspiration. At times, we are told, he climbed to a mountaintop or went into a desert place in order to be apart from the multitudes who incessantly thronged him and to be alone with God and keep his consciousness filled with a sense of his Father's divine power.

Thus the Master was enabled to express tenderness, joy, peace, love, and compassion, to heal, instantaneously and permanently, longstanding cases of sickness or sin, and to raise to life and health the dead and dying. No one who with sincerity sought his help was ever turned away from the blessings of divine good.

Whilst Christ Jesus ministered to the needs of others, his bodily as well as his spiritual requirements were met by the same divine power, for there is no record of his ever being sick. Our Master claimed no power of his own, and he made this quite clear when he said to Philip (John 14:10), "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

In order to consecrate our lives to knowing God, good, alone, listening to and obeying Him, we have to find opportunities for quiet meditation and prayer. A Christian Science Reading Room provides an opportunity to partake of spiritual refreshment for both beginners and advanced students.

At a time when I was suffering from continuous hemorrhages, an experienced Scientist counseled me to study, with the aid of the Concordances, the word "good" in Mrs. Eddy's writings. I spent many hours each day in the Reading Room of the branch Church of Christ, Scientist, which I attended. So much good appeared in my experience immediately following my search to understand good that I knew my God to be good too. I was truly regenerated and uplifted to behold my Saviour, the renewer of my health and strength.

A physician who was consulted at the insistence of a member of my family said that it was imperative that I have an operation in order to have any relief from the hemorrhages; but I decided to rely completely on God's omnipresent power to heal me. It was several years before complete release from this difficulty came, but that time did come, and the spiritual growth through the life-giving power of Truth, revealed in Christian Science, has been a beacon, growing brighter each day on my pathway from sense to Soul.

My attention at this time was also drawn to the following words of Mrs. Eddy in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 206): "Beloved students, you have entered the path. Press patiently on; God is good, and good is the reward of all who diligently seek God."

To those who have sought long and who have found the way weary, every encouragement is found in the teachings of Christian Science to press on. And we have the assurance set forth in this hymn (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 56):

To them that seek Thee Thou art good;
To them that find Thee, All in all.

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MIND CONTROLS THE BODY

November 7, 1959

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