Article January 24, 1976 Issue

Discouragement? No, Thank You!

CYRIL ALEXANDER BARBER

When we feel discouraged, there is deep comfort and help in the revelation of Christian Science that the spiritual man, whom God created, experiences only good.

We are told in Genesis that God saw His creation to be very good, and the writer of Ecclesiastes assures us, "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever."^{Eccl. 3:14;} Divine Love, the Father of all, is the eternal Principle, ensuring that man expresses and knows only good. And this spiritual, real man is the only man, the truth of each one of us.

Humans, unknowingly self-deceived, may misinterpret God's creation. The divine idea, immaculate spiritual man, is obscured in the distorted view that presents suffering, tragic humanity, frustrated by the flesh, a mixture of good and evil. But Christian Science, with biblical authority, brings out the full comfort of God's revelation of Himself. This Science explains how we can gradually put off the false, carnal mind which conceals and misstates the truth, and can put on by degrees the Mind of Christ, which gives us increasingly clear understanding of our glorious, fulfilled selfhood, our loved and loving sonship with God. Mrs. Eddy makes the way plain. She says, "The real man was, is, and ever shall be the divine ideal, that is, God's image and likeness; and Christian Science reveals the divine Principle, the example, the rule, and the demonstration of this idealism."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 272;}