“THE OMNIPOTENCE OF
GOD.”

Under the auspices of the Carlisle Christian Science Society, at the County Hall, Carlisle, on Thursday evening, Mr. Ralph B. SCHOLFIELD, C. S., of  London (Member of the Board of Lectureship of the Mother Church, the First  Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, U. S. A.) delivered to a large audience  a lecture on “The Omnipotence of God.”

In his introductory remarks, the Chairman, Mr. John W. HARWOOD, of   London, said that his attention was drawn to Christian Science about 30 years  ago by the healing of a friend who had suffered from spinal disease for many  years, and for three years had not been able to walk. She had tried everything that materia medica had to offer without result. Christian Science treatment healed her almost instantaneously.

This case of healing set him thinking, and he took up the study of the  
Christian Science Text Book. He soon began to see that this was much more than   just another kind of remedy, that it was just the restoration of primitive   Christianity. He found that his study of the book resulted in his own moral   healings. The desire  for intoxicants was lost, and he was able to prove  for himself that Christianity, as taught and practiced by Jesus has still the same poser to heal and redeem mankind.

As a proof of this he gave particulars of a case of healing which had  
recently been brought about by Christian Science of a person who had been   discharged from hospitals in London as being absolutely incurable, suffering  from a tumour of the brain. This person was blind, deaf and dumb, and had been perfectly healed by Christian Science treatment.

In the course of his lecture Mr. SCHOLFIELD said: - In the Christian Science textbook “Science and Health with Key to  Scriptures”
 by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 345), there is the following remarkable  statement, “ When the omnipotence of God is preached and His absoluteness is set  forth, Christian sermons will heal the sick.”

To preach the omnipotence and to set forth the absoluteness of God must   necessitate an understanding of God. And here we arrive at the first and most important query which the above sentence might well call forth, namely, What is God? We cannot, if we are observant, conclude that mankind has an exact knowledge of the nature of God, it may be unintelligible to you unless you know what is the Christianity scientific explanation of God.

DEFINITION OF GOD.
The very fact that there is a creation, that we exist and have strength and intelligence, proves that there must be a creator or a first cause. This  
first cause must necessarily be the first or primal power, intelligence, and   life. In other words, there must be fundamentally one cause, one power, one intelligence, and one Life. Now creation cannot proceed from both intelligence  and non-intelligence, power and impotence, life and death. For if intelligence is cause , non-intelligence is not cause. Hence the great fact that the primal   cause, power, intelligence, and Life is One. We are now entitled to ask, What is the nature of this one cause or power, that in the words of the Bible “spake, and it was done?” Is it good, or is it evil? It cannot be both for as we have seen, it is one in it’s very essence. Let  us be quite clear on the fact that if it were evil all creation would be evil,  all intelligence would be evil, and all life would be evil. Being evil, this  first cause would be self destructive. If the first cause were evil or destructive chaos would be natural; and evil being natural would be right or the  good thing to happen. Hence evil would be good. But this cannot be so.   Furthermore, our experience shows us that good is natural and constructive. The natural conclusion, is that the primal cause or power is absolutely good.
Let us add one more very important word, namely, Love.
I think that you will again admit that if that first cause was the opposite  
of Love it would be hatred. Now hatred never does anything but destroy. And if we had a first cause that is destructive in it’s nature then we are again reduced to an absurdity. Christian Science takes the old testament definition of  God as “I AM,” and couples it with the terms we have used above, namely, Cause,  intelligence, good, Life, love. Does not this imply that God, the one nfinite.  Mind is utterly free from conditions or limitations? In other words, God is  absolute. Here, let me read you a few lines from the Christian Science textbook,  on page 465. Question. - What is God?
Answer. - God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, truth, Love.
Question. - Are these term synonymous?
Answer. - They are. They refer to one absolute God.

PRAYER.
Someone may now say, Well, that may seem very logical, but how am I going to approach a God like that? How am I going to pray if I want help or  comfort?

Let us take one of the Bible definitions of God, one that is very  familiar
to all Christians, namely that God is Love. Remembering what we have   previously seen, that is, that the one primal cause has no conditions or limitations, let us ask ourselves if the ordinary idea of supplication is the very best way in which to approach infinite  Love. The one primal or infinite Love surely does not need to be reconciled to mortal shortcomings, does  not need to be asked to do something.
To illustrate: Suppose that two individuals were in similar trouble, and  
that they desired to pray for divine help. Let us suppose also that one of them   said or thought, “God help me,” meaning thereby, May God help me; and that the  other said or thought, “God helps me,” meaning, God actually does help me; which  of these two would be more likely to obtain the help desired?

Christian Science  says that the second way is the most efficacious. The first expression may carry  with it a great doubt as to the possibility or propriety of God’s help, whereas  the second is an assertion of a fact, and implies no doubt at all. I do not mean  to say that the first method is wrong. Not at all. It expresses a desire, and  desire is the very foundation of true prayer. But the second manifests some  grasp on the fact that the great primal cause, which is good and Love, is in  it’s very nature a help. - “a very present help in trouble.”

In defining the prayers of Jesus, Mrs. EDDY writes (Science and Health, p.   12) that “His humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of truth - of man’s likeness to God and man’s unity with Truth and Love.

Now when evil and disease come into your life are you going to sit down and meekly under them, and call them the will of God - the will of the one great cause which is eternally loving and good? Are you merely going to ask God to remove them, wondering all the time if medicine, climate or an operation will do  it better? Or are you going, as Jesus did, to protest the truth, namely, that  the first great cause is good, absolute, infinite Love, and therefore that  disease or evil does not belong to you, and that you cannot be guilty of it?

So long as the Israelites prayed aright or as the Bible has it, had one God, they prospered, In a broad sense, the most remarkable achievement of the Israelitish history was the giving of the law, as revealed in the First Commandment. That law is as alive and as important today as it ever was, but it  has become somewhat clouded, through false teaching.

EVIL HAS NO TRUE ORIGIN.

Do you not think that this is what Jesus came to fulfil - not a law of  rites
and ceremonies, but a law that had no conditions with evil or disease, a law that would admit of only one power, and that good?

I do not wish you to think that we as Christian Scientists just say that  
evil does not exist, and that we leave it at that. No, not at all. We take the side of humanity in the effort to overcome evil and disease. But for centuries humanity has fought evil and disease as if they were a stubborn and almost an eternal reality, and certainly a powerful force. And what we are doing in Christian Science is gradually depriving evil and disease of origin, cause or power, by understanding the assertion in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory.” Our God is that Divine Mind which is absolutely good, and therefore cannot produce evil.

JESUS’ PROOF OF GOD.

If we were to take out of the Gospels all the works of the Master  there
would indeed be no evidence left that he proved what he taught, or that his teaching would really save from sin, disease and death. As Christian Scientists we are convinced that His great works were no mere spectacular or  supernatural exhibitions, but they were done to illustrate the fact that God,  Spirit, or Love, can be subject to no material conditions whatsoever; that is,  that God is omnipotent and absolute.

CHRIST.

The manifestation of Jesus of the power and nature of God brings us to Mrs. EDDY’s definition of Christ as (Science and Health, p. 583), “The divine   manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.” The one infinite God, Mind, or Life must eternally be expressed or manifested, hence  the Christ or divine manifestation of God must also be eternal. And the Christ  will come to the flesh or human belief so long as that false belief lasts. That  is what Jesus meant when He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end  of the world.”

Though the Master passed from human sight the Christ, or divine  
manifestation of God, restores us in Christian Science the power of good and of  Love which heals, by the simple process of manifesting or showing forth Emanuel or God with us.

THE DISCOVERER AND FOUNDER.

In her textbook (p. 560), Mrs. EDDY says: “Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from view the apostle’s character, which made him equal  to his great mission . . . .  To misunderstand Paul, was to be ignorant of  the divine idea he taught.” And we can say about our beloved Leader that no one can grasp the great import of her teachings if he either misunderstands her or abuses the motives and religion.

I would ask you to observe just two events in her career, which may  
illustrate to you the purpose of her life. The first is in the year 1866, when  she was suffering from an injury caused by an accident and pronounced by the   doctors to be fatal. Whilst in this condition she read in her Bible from the ninth chapter of Matthew, the story of the man healed of palsy by Jesus. As she read, to use her own words (Miscellaneous Writings, p.24, “the healing Truth dawned upon my sense; and the result was that I rose, dressed myself, and ever  
after was in better health than I had before enjoyed.” Feeling that there was a law or Principle behind her healing, just as there was behind the healing of the case of palsy, from that day forward she devoted her whole life to discovering  and revealing this Principle for the benefit of the sick and tired humanity.

The other event to which I refer in Mrs. EDDY’s career happened some   thirteen years later, after thirteen years of toil, discouragement, endless   difficulty and triumph. At a meeting of a small band of Christian Science   Association, Mrs. EDDY moved a resolution as follows, (Manuel of the Mother  Church, p.24), “To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works  of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and it’s lost  element of healing.” That was her life purpose made clear once again; and a  careful study of her writings will reveal the fact that the central strain  throughout her
life work is her teaching of the omnipotence and absoluteness of  God. She has said (Science and Health, p. 340), “The First Commandment is my  favorite text.)

HEALING.

Let us take several illustrations of the working of Christian Science  in our daily life - illustrations of how to meet and to overcome trouble.

THE HEALING OF DISEASE.

Many people still believe that God either sends or permits disease for  the benefit and discipline of mankind. If you had charge of the world, would  you, even with a human sense of compassion, do such a thing? If you had infinite power, would you need to employ the most dreadful sicknesses and plagues in order to regenerate mankind? No, your very infinite power could regenerate instantaneously. Why then do we suffer? Why is disease so great a part of human experience? Mrs. EDDY has said that it is all owing to “fear, ignorance, or sin,” (Science and Health, p. 411). This means that disease is based on something which each one of us can and must deal with himself, up to a point at  any rate.
Even if a mortal suffers from an inherited disease or from one that he has   never thought of, this does not alter the fact that ignorance of God has opened the door for this disease to enter. Now how is this to be healed? In her text  book Mrs. EDDY gives an interesting illustration from the standpoint from which  to advance and meet disease. Let me say that this standpoint is of the very  greatest importance. She compares the position taken up by a surgeon and by a  Christian Scientist when faced by two parallel cases of bone disease.
Let me  read you what she says, (Science and Health p. 422, 423): “The surgeon, holding  that matter forms it’s own conditions and renders them fatal at points,  entertains fears and doubts as to the ultimate outcome of the injury. Not  holding the reins of Government in his own hands, he believes that something  stronger than mind - namely, matter, governs the case. His treatment therefore  is tentative. This mental state invites defeat . . . . The Christian Scientist,  understand scientifically that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the  truth of being, to destroy the error. This corrective is an alternative,  reaching to every part of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches  the joints and marrow, and it restores the harmony of the man.

Now do you see that these two practitioners start from diametrically  
opposite standpoints? And if we are to believe and to obey the First  Commandment, we must take the side of the Christian Scientist. Do you not see  that he refuses to give power to cause to disease from the very beginning? And  if you build up a disease in your thought and then try to destroy it you will  never succeed. But if you deprive it of cause, of time, of place and opportunity  to act, you will heal it.

You may say that Christian Science cannot touch organic diseases. But that is daily proved to be untrue. Organic disease is just as much the outcome of   fear, ignorance and sin as is functional disease. Both the Old Testament and the  New give us every indication that organic disease must yield to the law of God  just as readily and functional  disease. The Psalmist makes no distinction  in those well known verses of Psalm 103, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, . . .  
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities: who healeth all thy diseases. “ Paul
said,  “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Why did he not recommend  renewal of the blood, the lungs, and the tissues?” Because he had proved in his  own experience a better way to heal the sick and raise the dead. And this way  which he recommends to all, is to have the Mind that was in Jesus Christ.

HEALING OF POVERTY  AND
UNEMPLOYMENT.

How is Christian Science going to help in poverty and unemployment? In  the first place let us remember that there is a universal employment which is  not ordinarily reckoned as such  by the common use of the word. This  universal employment is thinking. All have to do a certain amount of thinking.  It is not generally understood that  a man’s experience in life is very  directly the outcome of his thinking. Laziness is lazy thinking; and dishonesty  is dishonest thinking, and while the effects of these may seem to be very  material, the cause will always remain mental, that is, in the individual  character.

Well, someone may say, What am I to think about? There is plenty to think about. If you will refer once more to our statement that God is absolute,  that Life, Good and Love is infinite, you can surely see that God never caused   poverty or unemployment. Therefore when you find suggestions entering your thoughts such as that the war or some catastrophe ruined your business, that you are too old or too young, that you are too inexperienced or unlucky, are you going to let these thoughts rule you and blur your vision of good? No. Then get down to your job of “bringing into captivity” as Paul says, “every thought to  the obedience of Christ,” the divine manifestation of the absolute God.
Rule out  of your mind all destructive thinking, such as fear, hatred, envy, depression,  ingratitude, and you will  then become a constructive thinker. Now a constructive thinker does not merely find a job, he makes one - and often where  least expected.

David said, “I have been young; and now I am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” The Master said, “Blessed  are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” Now it is in accordance with God   or good to be active, busy, and useful. Therefore let us purify the thinking of  the heart, and we shall see and experience good, and this is the cornerstone of  the healing of unemployment and poverty. As Christian Scientists we have no  quarrel with either the medical faculty or other denominations. There are great and grand men and women in those professions, and all we can say is, “ By their  fruits ye shall know them.”

Let me therefore ask you to use more thoughtfully than ever before your most active human faculty, namely, reason. Reason from standpoint of one great,   good and loving cause, which is Love itself, and which is Mind not matter. Then and then alone will you get all the things into their perspective. You will be  an idealist, but a very practical one, because you will be able to  prove for yourself and for others man’s God-given right, here and now, to Life, joy,  strength, and all  that goes to make up that which we call the Kingdom of   God. For does not the Father say, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine?
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