"Followers of God"

ELLA H. HAY

Paul , in his letter to the Ephesians, gave them loving encouragement in these words: "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us." This passage is an indicative statement of fact, as well as an admonition to strive with childlike faith and humility to express the qualities of God in daily experience.

In other words, man is by nature the son of God, Spirit, infinite good. He is the reflection of Spirit, the idea of divine Mind, Truth's witness. Christ Jesus' recognition of man's oneness with God enabled him to heal the sick and overcome limitation and death. The Master recognized the perfect man as God's own likeness, right where mortal sense presented a picture of a mortal as sinful, sick, weak, and weary. Jesus knew that man in God's likeness is never limited, corporeal, or fearful and through his spiritual understanding he brought healing into the experience of those who in faith sought his aid.

Prophets and apostles also proved the allness of God by healing the sick, providing needful supply, and overcoming death through the power of Spirit, Mind.

The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, proved that she was a true follower of Christ by her remarkable healings of various types of disease and inharmony. She recognized that the healing works recorded in the Scriptures have a scientific basis; and she searched, worked, and prayed for light until she discovered the Science underlying the healings recorded in the Bible. These findings she has given to mankind in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," wherein the truth she discovered is so clearly elucidated that the reading of this book has brought healing to great numbers of persons.

Christ Jesus emphasized the need for cultivating childlike qualities, since it is only as one becomes like "a little child" that he can demonstrate the fact that he is a follower of infinite good. How trustingly a child takes his parent's hand and follows where he is led! Fear, criticism, worry, doubt, discouragement, have no place in the childlike thought.

We are "followers of God" when we deny material sense and accept spiritual sense as our guide. Personal sense is a blind guide. Outstanding leaders throughout history have been those who directed the thoughts of men to the cause for which they were working, rather than to the personality of the leader.

Mrs. Eddy counseled her followers to seek the guidance of Mind at all times. She said (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 4), "Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ." And in the Christian Science textbook she gives the following definition (p. 583): "Christ. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."

It is the duty of all so to purify their thoughts and works that there may be no doubt that they are following Christ. The Master said, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."

In her writings Mrs. Eddy emphasizes the need for constant work toward the attainment of universal harmony. In the Manual of The Mother Church she has given the following By-Law (Art. VIII, Sect. 6): "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged,—and justified or condemned."

A study of this By-Law brought the needed help to a Christian Scientist who had become suddenly ill. Discouragement, fear, and resentment flooded her thought because certain problems requiring solution seemed pressing. However, she persisted in searching for light, and this particular By-Law came to her thought. Then it dawned upon her more clearly than before that she had a solemn duty to perform—the work of resisting evil in every form. She saw that her duty was to God, in recognition of His perfection; to her Leader, in gratitude for her vision and steadfastness in establishing the Cause of Christian Science; and to mankind, in presenting proofs of divine power by healing the sick and overcoming inharmony of every kind.

Earnest affirmations of the perfection of God and man, and humble acceptance of this truth of being, resulted in the immediate healing of the diseased condition with which the student was confronted.

It is a glorious privilege to prove that man, in the likeness of God, is His perfect child.

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