Article November 2, 1981 Issue

Those books!

DORIS S. SCHWARTZ

To many people, God is a mystery, the great Unknown. Although called supremely good and loving, He is supposed to mete out life and death, good and evil, testing human intelligence and will by forcing us to choose between the very opposites He is credited with creating or allowing.

Paul noted this belief in a mysterious God among the men of Athens. Addressing them on Mars' Hill, he said: "I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."^{Acts 17:22, 23.}

Centuries later the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote in the Preface to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity.... Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith."^{Science and Health, p. vii.} Mrs. Eddy's long search to discover the mental causation behind all physical effects led to a physical healing through spiritual means. This healing signaled to her that God, divine Spirit, does reveal Himself in ways that are lawful and logical, as well as relevant to the human scene. Our honest, sincere questions "Where do we look for God? How do we hear Him? When will we know Him?" stem from a deep longing within us. Whether we know it or not, we are looking for our real cause, for completeness, for real Life. These searching questions are cracks or openings in our belief that God is unknowable. And just as water finds and flows into rock crevices, so God's grace moves in and abides with us when our hearts seek Him.