Editorial November 3, 1986 Issue

On being the effect of God

Carolyn B. Swan

It is wise to watch what we accept into our thought, to challenge whatever would contradict the all-loving and perfect nature of our primal creator and cause, God. The importance of this is brought home in Christ Jesus' lessons on cause and effect. "Every tree is known by his own fruit," he taught. "For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil."^{Luke 6:44, 45.}

Must we become wholly good in order to improve our condition? Are our own thoughts the only arbiter of our health? While Christian rebirth was unequivocally taught by Jesus, still, changing one's entire way of thinking and doing can be a gradual process! So the Master's instantaneous healing works must have indicated a higher source than the character of his patients alone.

God, unadulterated good, was and is the infinite cause which through Christ-healing overrules even the worst forms of disease and degradation. Human improvement is the effect, not the cause, of Christ-healing. The Son of God was in the best position to know that divine sonship embraces all true identity and that God's man is His beloved and always perfect effect.

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