GOD IS HERE AND EVERYWHERE

Christian Science is a very practical religion. Its teachings, when understandingly and prayerfully applied, heal sickness, sin, and sorrow of every description. These teachings tell us of the true nature of God. They tell us that God is incorporeal Spirit, infinite Mind, divine Love, eternal Truth, and they tell us that God is here and everywhere.

God being everywhere, it follows that there is no place where God is not. As students of Christian Science we seek to demonstrate the ever-presence here and now of divine Truth, Life, and Love, because we know that in so doing we prove at the same time the nothingness, the nowhereness, of sickness, sin, and sorrow.

Mortal selfhood often seems so real to us that we believe we are apart from God and His goodness. The belief of separation between God and man is a stumbling block to spiritual progress. It is unscientific and unchristian. It is not true and is therefore a sure source of discord and unhappiness. It contradicts Christ Jesus' well-known statement (John 10:30 ), "I and my Father are one."

In Psalm 139 there are several beautiful passages that bring out the thought that God is where we are. One passage reads, "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." In the degree that we understand the everywhereness and therefore the hereness of God, we shall free ourselves from the bonds which seem to bind us to matter. And we shall gain something of that spiritual inspiration which brings healing and comfort to ourselves and others.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy tells us (p. 520 ), "The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space." Infinite Love heals, supports, and blesses. It is here where we are, and we can reflect it. All we know and enjoy of infinite Love is what we reflect of it.

All the love, goodness, and wisdom that really exist are of God. God being infinite, they are available everywhere and for all. Because good is infinite, God's children lack nothing that is good.

In the healing practice of Christian Science it is important to have a proper sense of infinity. Infinity is not an endless progression of material things or material space. Infinite space in its true signification is the abode of Spirit. It is here because it is everywhere.

When a Christian Science practitioner is giving a patient a treatment, he knows that where in belief there is a problem, God is present. He knows that the Christ, Truth, which heals is everywhere. As the practitioner gains a clear spiritual sense of God and His perfect reflection, man, he loses all sense of a discordant problem. He knows that spiritual truth and mortal error cannot abide together.

Since the healing Truth is universal, it is not confined to some material location where the practitioner is. Truth is also where the patient is. As the patient gratefully acknowledges and humbly accepts it, health and harmony are restored.

The teachings of Christian Science make it clear that God's child, our real and perfect selfhood, reflects God and is always with God. In her book "Unity of Good," Mrs. Eddy tells us (p. 46 ): "I do not deny, I maintain, the individuality and reality of man; but I do so on a divine Principle, not based on a human conception and birth. The scientific man and his Maker are here; and you would be none other than this man, if you would subordinate the fleshly perceptions to the spiritual sense and source of being."

When the writer was a young student of Christian Science, it seemed right from a business point of view that he and his family should move to a certain large city. It was necessary that he should get employment; so he visited a Christian Science practitioner and asked her to help him to know that God was his true employer. She agreed to do so.

A few days later he was taken by a business acquaintance to the office of a certain firm and was introduced to two junior partners. During the conversation which ensued, one of the partners said, "I am sure, if you go far enough and travel fast enough, you will find something to do." This was said in an entirely friendly spirit. But the writer saw in the words an implication which should be denied, and he said quite spontaneously, "There is work here for me to do."

A few minutes later the meeting broke up. The writer then called on a firm whose office was on another floor of the same building. He did not go there with any thought of getting employment, but to get an introduction to a certain businessman. Yet in this office he found the very employment of which he was in need. He accepted the offer which was made to him there and then, and he started work the following week.

God is here. All Mind, all Truth, all Love is here. Jesus said (Luke 17:21 ), "The kingdom of God is within you." How inspiring, how healing are these divine truths! In their presence sickness sin. and sorrow are wholly unknown. We can ask for nothing better in human experience than a clear and constant consciousness that God with all His loving-kindness is everywhere and therefore here.

In one of her poems, Mrs. Eddy gives us these meaningful lines (Poems, p. 37 ):