Editorial June 17, 1996 Issue

God is, here and now

Mark Swinney

Sometimes it seems that events or people "out there," or away from and outside ourselves, have caused us harm or are keeping us from good. As tempted as we sometimes may be to go after the people—or the things—that we believe are holding us hostage, it is always more productive to deal directly in thought with the suggestion that there might ever exist something that could come between us and God's goodness.

"Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true spiritual growth," states Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health (p. 91). Through prayer, we make that departure, and drop the false concept of our relation to God—and so gain freedom from anything in our experience that would separate us from good.

The experience of Paul and Silas in the Bible illustrates this fact well. They had been traveling in Macedonia and, after being accused falsely, were beaten and imprisoned. They were both placed in bonds and put under guard. Paul and Silas apparently didn't even try to convince the ruling magistrates or the guard to loose their bonds and free them. Instead, the Bible tells us "At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:25–30)

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