Solomon's Question

Editor

The questioning of Solomon, as recorded in 2 Chronicles, 6, has been more or less reiterated by mortals in all ages:—

"Will God in very deed dwell with men in the earth?"

Mortals have queried: Can it be that a God invisible to the mortal eye really exists? and, if so, is it possible that He is present on the earth with men? If He is, why cannot we see Him in such a way that we may be sure of His existence, and know Him as we see and know each other upon the earth? If, in very deed, He does dwell with us upon the earth, why must we wait until we get to Heaven to see and know Him?

These are natural questionings of limited personal sense in its conception of a limited personal God. If limited personal sense alone is capable of giving answer, can it be conscientiously said that God does in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Where is the mortal who has seen a personal God? Where is the mortal who, after all these ages of teaching of the existence of a personal God, knows how or where to look for Him upon this earth?

If personal sense must answer Solomon's query, has it any other recourse than to say: God cannot be found upon the earth, therefore, He must be in Heaven, and I may not see or know Him until I too am in Heaven. I am taught that Heaven is reached only through death, hence I cannot see and know, or even hope to see and know, God until I have passed the portal of death and the grave and have reached my abiding place in Heaven. I can only, therefore, await patiently the time when God, in His own way and time, shall see fit to call me to His presence and let me see and know Him.

Thus have millions of honest hearts reasoned in the past, and thus are millions of honest hearts reasoning now.

Was this Solomon's view? Did he thus reason? Evidently not, for he answers his own query in the very same sentence in which he asks it; and this is his answer: "Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee."

This is strong and sweeping language. It can mean nothing less than infinity. That Power or Presence which cannot be contained in the heaven of heavens, surely is not a person that personal or finite sense can see and know, or that can be materially discerned.

There must be a different and better apprehension of God than this, or Solomon's question will have to be answered in the negative.

What, then, is the true answer? The answer is conveyed throughout the Christian Science text-book, whose author, Mary Baker G. Eddy, manifestly grasped the spiritual meaning of such an answer as Solomon gave, and elaborately set it forth in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

If, as therein taught, we conceive of God as Supreme Intelligence and this Intelligence as Infinite or universal Spirit, we can then rise above mere physical or personal sense into a spiritual perception of God, and can thus understand how He doth "in very deed dwell with men on the earth," for He is everywhere present, an all-protecting and all-preserving Being.

Can Solomon's question be rationally answered otherwise?

We might verify Solomon's answer by almost numberless Scriptural references, but for the purposes of this article we are content to rest here.

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