The question Do you believe in God? requires a thoughtful answer. It may mean defining terms, if the answer is to be clearly understood.

I was asked this question recently by an intelligent young college student who was searching for some ultimate value in life that would have substance and meaning for her. Her studies in philosophy had not satisfied her, and her examination of orthodox and ritualistic religions had given her nothing to hold on to. She had acquired the impression that God might be some Being just beyond reason or understanding, something or someone outside oneself, perhaps a state of thought to strive for.

She knew I was a student of Christian Science, but she knew little of what Science means. I was grateful to be able to answer her without equivocation: "Yes, I do believe in God," and to outline some of the reasons for my confidence in His goodness and love and ever-presence.

The idea of God and all that it means has always been of major importance to thinkers, and not only to those who may be termed deep thinkers, but to ordinary men and women. The Bible is a history of humanity's interest in God. It traces the change and growth from belief in a God of wrath, of war, tribal supreme Being, to the consciousness of God as changeless Love, infinite Spirit, immortal Truth, eternal Life, as Christ Jesus taught and proved and Christian Science reiterates.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gives this answer to the question "What is God?": "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love."  ^{Science and Health, p. 465;}

John opens his Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  ^{John 1:1, 5;} He defines the Word as the life and the light of men and avers that "the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." The darkness of materialism has never obliterated the light of Truth.

The opening words of the Bible are, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."  ^{Gen. 1:1;} Christian Science takes the first chapter of Genesis as the spiritual revelation of the eternal truth of creation. God is revealed infinite Spirit and man as His image and likeness, His reflection, therefore spiritual and immortal. The perfection of God and His spiritual creation, including man, is declared in the words, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."  ^{v. 31;}

Mrs. Eddy writes: "As God Himself is good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be immortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirituality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and cannot be the outcome of an infinite God, good."  ^{Science and Health, p. 277;}

This is the basis of spiritual reasoning in Christian Science that heals discord and disease. Such thought is prayer. As thought is held to the perfection and unbroken unity of God and man, the imperfection of mortal belief in evil is exposed and expelled from human consciousness. Such prayer proves that the allness of God is divine Truth and that Truth heals discord and disease.

My friend had a further question: "Have you proved what you believe of God and man?" I was able to assure her that I had indeed proved the healing power of an understanding of God.

My skull was fractured in a motor accident, and I was taken to a hospital by ambulance. My husband knew that I would wish to rely entirely upon God for healing, so he registered me as a Christian Scientist and requested only nursing care for me. A Christian Science practitioner was asked at once to help through prayer. In four days I was home, and in few days more returned to my work as head of a secretarial college. Other ills met and mastered from time to time included those of influenza, a damaged nose, and a thumbnail that had been torn away from the flesh. Within ten days both thumb and nail were completely normal.

My young friend's questions gave me the opportunity to reaffirm the conviction Christian Science gives of the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God, and of the real man as the idea of Mind, therefore spiritual, whole, and immortal.

I am grateful that the perfection of true being can be glimpsed and experienced in some measure now. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," ^{Matt. 6:10;} the Lord's Prayer invokes; and Christian Science spiritually interprets, "Enable us to know,—as in heaven, so on earth,—God is omnipotent, supreme." ^{Science and Health, p. 17;}

I rejoice that I can say with deep conviction, "Yes, I believe in God. I really believe in God." In the words of the Bible, "I know that my redeemer liveth." ^{Job 19:25.}