The Christian is called on to be a good person—to be humble, modest, honest, affectionate. Such qualities should be expressed in his church, with his family, on the job.

But is that enough?

The Christian is apt to pray to be a good person. There's a difference between being good because we think it's the best way to participate in society, and being good because we have prayed about it. The former may involve only a fine secular approach to life; the latter introduces an element of the Christ—it puts spiritual power into our efforts. Existence can be a lot more meaningful if through prayer goodness has increased in our life.

But is that enough?

There are many people who pray for spiritual good in their lives and still experience a degree of sin or suffering. Paul encourages us, "Pray without ceasing." ^{I Thess. 5:17.} Invaluable guidance—but even then, our turning to God needs to be filled with a recognition that good doesn't originate in us; it is reflected by us. It comes from God. This is a huge acknowledgment to make. And yet it's so important to discern through prayer that we can express true goodness only because God Himself is good.

But is that enough?

What a happy and peaceful life if we could just sit back and contemplate the infinite goodness of God and His idea man. Really? No, such a life would not be so peaceful. The Christian cannot ignore the claims of evil. People are sometimes very enthusiastic about thinking of good. They're not so enthusiastic about confronting and defeating aggressive evil. When the temptation comes to sin or to be sick, depressed, or afraid, it takes strong moral courage and genuine spiritual conviction based on a perception of God's omnipotent, universal law to face evil down.

The Christian who is unwilling to stand up to evil and destroy the belief in it is the Christian who isn't yet willing to follow in every footstep the Master laid out. It takes deep spiritual perception and persistence to recognize the illusiveness, the false basis, of evil. Evil must be faced; it cannot be avoided. It must be defeated, not intellectually or theoretically, but right within our own lives.

But is even that enough?

How nice it would be if we could just be a good person; or if we could just pray to be a good person; or if we could pray to be a good person and gratefully pray to recognize God as the source of all goodness; or if we could pray to demonstrate true goodness and confront evil and overcome it at every point in our lives. Still there is more.

The scientific Christian prays right to the final point of spiritual awakening—an awakening that enables him to recognize not only that man expresses good, that God is the source of good, that evil must be defeated. He surrenders to the realization that God is All. Mrs. Eddy explains, "If God is All, and God is good, it follows that all must be good; and no other power, law, or intelligence can exist." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 101.}

A deep-rooted and ongoing acceptance of this great fact is the most humbling experience the human mind can have. It is the giving up of a finite personal mind and a recognition that the only Mind man has is God Himself, infinitely good. As we see that God is All, that His goodness is universal, and that man is eternally included in His allness, our prayer is Christ-empowered.

And that is enough.

NATHAN A. TALBOT