Article March 15, 1969 Issue

The Reward of Mercy Must Be Earned

PAULINE ALLEN

There are times when we feel we have earned a reward and have not received it. In some instances we may be aware that our actions have not merited a reward, and we may even be suffering in consequence. We may then pray to God for mercy.

The actual nearness of this mercy is brought out in a lovely promise in one of the Psalms, "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works." ^{ Ps. 145:9;} In this same Psalm we are told: "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. . . . The Lord preserveth all them that love him." Many Bible promises are thus closely related to some action necessary on our part. Things don't just happen. Our experience is the result of our thinking. We must be worthy of the blessings God is continually bestowing on us.

Through Christian Science we learn that the man of God's creating is always at one with his creator as idea, or reflection. He expresses harmonious being, and does not need compassion or mercy. But the human individual must grow out of the limiting beliefs of mortality, and this progress comes through increased spiritual understanding. Sometimes the individual falls by the wayside, and his understanding seems inadequate to save him. Then, in his human need, he requires help through divine mercy.

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