D.projectile
06-23-2012, 09:36 AM
Nevertheless, at the present crude hour, no wise men or women will rudely
or prematurely agitate a theme involving the All of infinity.
Rather will they rejoice in the small understanding they have already
gained of the wholeness of Deity, and work gradually and gently up toward
the perfect thought divine. This meekness will increase their apprehension
of God, because their mental struggles and pride of opinion will
proportionately diminish.
Every one should be encouraged not to accept any personal opinion on so
great a matter, but to seek the divine Science of this question of Truth by
following upward individual convictions, undisturbed by the frightened
sense of any need of attempting to solve every Life-problem in a day.
"Great is the mystery of godliness," says Paul; and _mystery_ involves the
unknown. No stubborn purpose to force conclusions on this subject will
unfold in us a higher sense of Deity; neither will it promote the Cause of
Truth or enlighten the individual thought.
Let us respect the rights of conscience and the liberty of the sons of God,
so letting our "moderation be known to all men." Let no enmity, no
untempered controversy, spring up between Christian Science students and
Christians who wholly or partially differ from them as to the nature of sin
and the marvellous unity of man with God shadowed forth in scientific
thought. Rather let the stately goings of this wonderful part of Truth be
left to the supernal guidance.
"These are but parts of Thy ways," says Job; and the whole is greater than
its parts. Our present understanding is but "the seed within itself," for
it is divine Science, "bearing fruit after its kind."
Sooner or later the whole human race will learn that, in proportion as the
spotless selfhood of God is understood, human nature will be renovated, and
man will receive a higher selfhood, derived from God, and the redemption of
mortals from sin, sickness, and death be established on everlasting
foundations.
The Science of physical harmony, as now presented to the people in divine
light, is radical enough to promote as forcible collisions of thought as
the age has strength to bear. Until the heavenly law of health, according
to Christian Science, is firmly grounded, even the thinkers are not
prepared to answer intelligently leading questions about God and sin, and
the world is far from ready to assimilate such a grand and all-absorbing
verity concerning the divine nature and character as is embraced in the
theory of God's blindness to error and ignorance of sin. No wise mother,
though a graduate of Wellesley College, will talk to her babe about the
problems of Euclid.
Not much more than a half-century ago the assertion of universal salvation
provoked discussion and horror, similar to what our declarations about sin
and Deity must arouse, if hastily pushed to the front while the platoons of
Christian Science are not yet thoroughly drilled in the plainer manual of
their spiritual armament. "Wait patiently on the Lord;" and in less than
another fifty years His name will be magnified in the apprehension of this
new subject, as already He is glorified in the wide extension of belief in
the impartial grace of God,--shown by the changes at Andover Seminary and
in multitudes of other religious folds.
from page 10:
Jesus distinctly taught the arrogant Pharisees that, from the beginning,
their father, the devil, was the would-be murderer of Truth. A right
apprehension of the wonderful utterances of him who "spake as never man
spake," would despoil error of its borrowed plumes, and transform the
universe into a home of marvellous light,--"a consummation devoutly to be
wished."
Error says God must know evil because He knows all things; but Holy Writ
declares God told our first parents that in the day when they should
partake of the fruit of evil, they must surely die. Would it not absurdly
follow that God must perish, if He knows evil and evil necessarily leads
to extinction? Rather let us think of God as saying, I am infinite good;
therefore I know not evil. Dwelling in light, I can see only the brightness
of My own glory.
Error may say that God can never save man from sin, if He knows and sees it
not; but God says, I am too pure to behold iniquity, and destroy everything
that is unlike Myself.
Many fancy that our heavenly Father reasons thus: If pain and sorrow were
not in My mind, I could not remedy them, and wipe the tears from the eyes
of My children. Error says you must know grief in order to console it.
Truth, God, says you oftenest console others in troubles that you have not.
Is not our comforter always from outside and above ourselves?
God says, I show My pity through divine law, not through human. It is My
sympathy with and My knowledge of harmony (not inharmony) which alone
enable Me to rebuke, and eventually destroy, every supposition of discord.
Error says God must know death in order to strike at its root; but God
saith, I am ever-conscious Life, and thus I conquer death; for to be ever
conscious of Life is to be never conscious of death. I am All. A knowledge
of aught beside Myself is impossible.
If such knowledge of evil were possible to God, it would lower His rank.
With God, _knowledge_ is necessarily _foreknowledge_; and _foreknowledge_
and _foreordination_ must be one, in an infinite Being. What Deity
_foreknows_, Deity must _foreordain_; else He is not omnipotent, and, like
ourselves, He foresees events which are contrary to His creative will, yet
which He cannot avert.
If God knows evil at all, He must have had foreknowledge thereof; and if He
foreknew it, He must virtually have intended it, or ordered it
aforetime,--foreordained it; else how could it have come into the world?
But this we cannot believe of God; for if the supreme good could predestine
or foreknow evil, there would be sin in Deity, and this would be the end of
infinite moral unity. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!" On the contrary, evil is only a delusive
deception, without any actuality which Truth can know.
or prematurely agitate a theme involving the All of infinity.
Rather will they rejoice in the small understanding they have already
gained of the wholeness of Deity, and work gradually and gently up toward
the perfect thought divine. This meekness will increase their apprehension
of God, because their mental struggles and pride of opinion will
proportionately diminish.
Every one should be encouraged not to accept any personal opinion on so
great a matter, but to seek the divine Science of this question of Truth by
following upward individual convictions, undisturbed by the frightened
sense of any need of attempting to solve every Life-problem in a day.
"Great is the mystery of godliness," says Paul; and _mystery_ involves the
unknown. No stubborn purpose to force conclusions on this subject will
unfold in us a higher sense of Deity; neither will it promote the Cause of
Truth or enlighten the individual thought.
Let us respect the rights of conscience and the liberty of the sons of God,
so letting our "moderation be known to all men." Let no enmity, no
untempered controversy, spring up between Christian Science students and
Christians who wholly or partially differ from them as to the nature of sin
and the marvellous unity of man with God shadowed forth in scientific
thought. Rather let the stately goings of this wonderful part of Truth be
left to the supernal guidance.
"These are but parts of Thy ways," says Job; and the whole is greater than
its parts. Our present understanding is but "the seed within itself," for
it is divine Science, "bearing fruit after its kind."
Sooner or later the whole human race will learn that, in proportion as the
spotless selfhood of God is understood, human nature will be renovated, and
man will receive a higher selfhood, derived from God, and the redemption of
mortals from sin, sickness, and death be established on everlasting
foundations.
The Science of physical harmony, as now presented to the people in divine
light, is radical enough to promote as forcible collisions of thought as
the age has strength to bear. Until the heavenly law of health, according
to Christian Science, is firmly grounded, even the thinkers are not
prepared to answer intelligently leading questions about God and sin, and
the world is far from ready to assimilate such a grand and all-absorbing
verity concerning the divine nature and character as is embraced in the
theory of God's blindness to error and ignorance of sin. No wise mother,
though a graduate of Wellesley College, will talk to her babe about the
problems of Euclid.
Not much more than a half-century ago the assertion of universal salvation
provoked discussion and horror, similar to what our declarations about sin
and Deity must arouse, if hastily pushed to the front while the platoons of
Christian Science are not yet thoroughly drilled in the plainer manual of
their spiritual armament. "Wait patiently on the Lord;" and in less than
another fifty years His name will be magnified in the apprehension of this
new subject, as already He is glorified in the wide extension of belief in
the impartial grace of God,--shown by the changes at Andover Seminary and
in multitudes of other religious folds.
from page 10:
Jesus distinctly taught the arrogant Pharisees that, from the beginning,
their father, the devil, was the would-be murderer of Truth. A right
apprehension of the wonderful utterances of him who "spake as never man
spake," would despoil error of its borrowed plumes, and transform the
universe into a home of marvellous light,--"a consummation devoutly to be
wished."
Error says God must know evil because He knows all things; but Holy Writ
declares God told our first parents that in the day when they should
partake of the fruit of evil, they must surely die. Would it not absurdly
follow that God must perish, if He knows evil and evil necessarily leads
to extinction? Rather let us think of God as saying, I am infinite good;
therefore I know not evil. Dwelling in light, I can see only the brightness
of My own glory.
Error may say that God can never save man from sin, if He knows and sees it
not; but God says, I am too pure to behold iniquity, and destroy everything
that is unlike Myself.
Many fancy that our heavenly Father reasons thus: If pain and sorrow were
not in My mind, I could not remedy them, and wipe the tears from the eyes
of My children. Error says you must know grief in order to console it.
Truth, God, says you oftenest console others in troubles that you have not.
Is not our comforter always from outside and above ourselves?
God says, I show My pity through divine law, not through human. It is My
sympathy with and My knowledge of harmony (not inharmony) which alone
enable Me to rebuke, and eventually destroy, every supposition of discord.
Error says God must know death in order to strike at its root; but God
saith, I am ever-conscious Life, and thus I conquer death; for to be ever
conscious of Life is to be never conscious of death. I am All. A knowledge
of aught beside Myself is impossible.
If such knowledge of evil were possible to God, it would lower His rank.
With God, _knowledge_ is necessarily _foreknowledge_; and _foreknowledge_
and _foreordination_ must be one, in an infinite Being. What Deity
_foreknows_, Deity must _foreordain_; else He is not omnipotent, and, like
ourselves, He foresees events which are contrary to His creative will, yet
which He cannot avert.
If God knows evil at all, He must have had foreknowledge thereof; and if He
foreknew it, He must virtually have intended it, or ordered it
aforetime,--foreordained it; else how could it have come into the world?
But this we cannot believe of God; for if the supreme good could predestine
or foreknow evil, there would be sin in Deity, and this would be the end of
infinite moral unity. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!" On the contrary, evil is only a delusive
deception, without any actuality which Truth can know.