"GOD IS EVERYWHERE"

Daily more people are realizing that God is good and is right where they are. As this truth is unfolded in their consciousness, it arouses a hope for better things, since the desire for good is natural. The businessman wants a good business, the farmer wants good crops and good prices for them, the worker wants a good position, and the sick and ailing strive and long for good health. So the search for good seems unending; it is an urge that prompts continual effort and to mortal sense is never satisfied.

To be good in the sight of God is most desirable. In Ecclesiastes (2:26) we find these encouraging words: "God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy." Surely these are rewards worth striving for, and the seeker is much encouraged by the answer Christ Jesus gave to the question (Matt. 19:16), "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" The Master said, "Why tallest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Christ Jesus not only declared in this answer that God is the source of all, good, but also made it clear that keeping the commandments of God is rewarded by that which is most desired—eternal life.

Students of Christian Science soon learn the need of knowing the meaning of the Commandments. Obedience to the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is found to be the fundamental step in securing the good which each one is searching for. This Commandment is packed with meaning. It is a direct demand to cease looking for good in any material source, but rather to place entire dependence upon God as the Giver of all good.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 340): "The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the triunity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal."

Many people who were tormented by sickness, or the fear of it, have found health and freedom through the study of Christian Science. The writer, after the loss of his father and a brother from heart trouble, was told that he had but a few weeks to live, since this complaint was developing fast with him. The study of Christian Science was taken up, and a complete healing was received. Several years have passed, and there has been no return of this difficulty.

Sometimes one hears another speak of unfavorable circumstances that make healing difficult, if not impossible. Certain surrounding conditions are credited with preventing God's goodness and help from being available. These suggestions of error should not be allowed to divert one from a firm determination to rely radically on God for help. Such reliance brings sure reward. Mrs. Eddy writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 128): "Truth crushed to earth springs spontaneously upward, and whispers to the breeze man's inalienable birthright—Liberty. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' God is everywhere."

The falsity of the belief that circumstances have control over God and man and may make His ever-present help unavailable was fully exposed in a letter received by the writer from a man living in a very remote part of the United States, on an Indian reservation. He wrote in part:

"During the past three years I have been fortunate in obtaining occasional copies of The Christian Science Journal, the Christian Science Sentinel, and The Christian Science Monitor: and once I was blessed in having a borrowed copy of Science and Health for a period of ten days. This literature has brought a God-sent revelation to me and has enabled me to gravitate away from many of the old doctrines and false beliefs about life. Although a sufferer from tuberculosis, appendicitis, and heredity or its claims, I was not seeking healing, but a truer, higher knowledge of God, His laws, and man. I find that I am experiencing, after forty years of misery, a marked degree of relief from pain, and I am buoyant with the hope of demonstrating a still greater measure of freedom.

"In my ... Indian fashion I am beginning to realize that the very goodness and allness of God exclude the existence of sin, sickness, and death, of lack, inability, and the weight of time. I would that I knew more of God's one and only creation, the spiritual, and nought of the counterfeit.

"While I had Science and Health I memorized Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, and what a wonderful help it is. I find myself repeating and trying to imbibe its meaning, yes, even dining the hours of sleep, when false suggestions and erroneous beliefs in the shape of bad dreams rear their ugh heads. Such practice seems to be awakening me to the reality of Life, God, Spirit, and the spiritual creation."

Upon receipt of this letter I sent him a copy of Science and Health with the current Christian Science Quarterly, and his reply is outstanding in its expressions of humble gratitude:

"I am sure you can understand my surprise and joy when I received the copy of Science and Health and the Quarterly. Since writing to you last Sunday I had determined to send for that wonderful book as soon as I possibly could; in fact, I was prayerfully contemplating just how I could manage it; and now to know that I actually possess a copy! God is blessing me in such remarkable ways that I feel very humble and grateful and happy.

"It seems as though I had been dwelling in a dark region for ages, at last to discover Life, light, Love, God, all about me. That has been the true situation all the time; only I did not have the understanding, or spiritual perception, to realize it. Best of all, and aside from blood and earthly relationships, is the knowledge that man has only God, Spirit, Mind, as his true Parent."

This experience brings out the fact that God implants in the humble and receptive heart the seed of His saving power and grace. When one therefore is confronted with a situation he seems unable to meet, he need but call out to his heavenly Father for help. Man is God's indelible reflection, spiritual and perfect, untarnished by any material blot. A spiritual understanding of this fact and a steadfast reliance on the ever-present goodness of God bring good in increasing measure into our experience. It fulfills the instinctive desire for good and leads to the attainment of eternal life. Christ Jesus said (John 4:23), "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him."