The special report on religious bodies compiled by the...

William S. Campbell

Washington (D. C.) Post

The special report on religious bodies compiled by the bureau of the census, gives the number of church-members in the United States as thirty-three millions in round numbers. Each one of these persons professedly believes in God. If each were to be asked to give a definition of God, a large majority would undoubtedly agree that God is a person and an inflexible and righteous judge. They would also admit that Jesus has thrown more light on the character and nature of God than has any other teacher.

Nothing can be more important than to know, if it be possible, what God is, and what are His nature and attributes. It is admitted that the Galilean Prophet had a singularly clear insight into spiritual realities, and that he spoke "as one having authority." A study of his statements about God shows them to be at variance with the belief that God is a person. On one occasion he said, "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." Still more at variance with the popular concept is his statement, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you."

These seemingly extravagant statements become reasonable if we take the Master's own definition for God. It is given accurately in the Revised Version, "God is Spirit." He further stated that God is' life, and his favorite student, the "beloved disciple," summarized what he had learned from the great Teacher in the definition, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." That the concept of God as a person was not the concept of the early church may be assumed from a statement made by Paul, the foremost church organizer of that day. In unequivocal terms he stated, "In him we live, and move, and have our being." The unreasonable assumption that the omnipresent and omnipotent creator is a person is a heritage of the Christian church from the dark ages. So closely has the pall of that period overhung the succeeding centuries that when, in our time, Mrs. Eddy proclaimed the true definition, that God is Spirit; God is Life; God is Love, it was like the voice of one crying in the wilderness—the wilderness of doctrinal beliefs.

With such explicit definitions as have confronted Bible students, it is passing strange that such an erroneous concept of Deity should have so long held sway, and stranger still that the world should have been so slow to accept the Christian Science interpretation. Were there anything repellant in in this interpretation there might be reason for mankind's disregard of the Master's definitions, and some reason for seeking a better concept. But what can be more satisfying than the assurance that God, as Spirit, fills all space; that as Life He is the animating Principle of all real being; that as Love He can be seen even if it be as "through a glass, darkly," in every act and deed of kindness; that God and good are identical, and that all goodness comes from good, or God?

The concept of God as a relentless judge has nothing to support it in Jesus' teachings, if interpreted from the stand-point of his definitions of God. The parable of the tares and wheat is an illustration. Until the advent of Christian Science, this parable was used to uphold the theory that one person will be consigned to perpetual anguish, while another will enjoy eternal bliss, though presumably in the full consciousness of the indescribable torment of the other. When this parable is understood to refer, not to two individuals, but to the evil and the good qualities inherent in every mortal, it will be recognized that the destruction of the evil qualities and the preservation of the good is entirely in keeping with the definition. "God is Love." Of two interpretations of Scripture, it is wise always for Bible students to choose the more reasonable. Further proof that Jesus did not attribute to God the qualities popularly ascribed to Him may be found in his words, "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" He referred to the sparrows, the ravens, and the lilies, in proof of a God who is good, and then questioned, "Are ye not much better than they?"

On page 140 of the Christian Science text-book appears this statement: "The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a manprojected God, liable to wrath, repentance, and human changeableness. The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mournfully true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the beginning God created man in His, God's, image; but mortals would procreate man, and make God in their own human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal magnified?"

This reasonable and satisfying idea of God propounded by Mrs. Eddy is the basis of the Christian Science doctrine. It appeals to the sober sense of mankind, and is meeting the needs of all classes—Jew, Christian, and infidel.

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