God Governs And Controls All

Written by Herman Campbell Blye, 1928

The entire universe, including man, is under the control of God, divine Mind, who always governs harmoniously. This, however, seems to the so-called material senses to be very far from the facts, for these senses would argue continually that there is a power opposed to God, an evil power that expresses itself in sin, disease, and death, and that is capable of causing perpetual discord. This evil power will seem to be real, just so long as the testimony of the material senses is accepted and believed to be true; and it can be proved to be false and therefore unreal, and superseded, only as men progress in an understanding of the truth. And an understanding of the healing truth is possible now for all, through a study of the Christian Science textbooks.

Earnest students of Christian Science are proving evil to be, as Jesus said of the devil, "a liar, and the father of it." Evil is thus being deprived of its imaginary power. Its so-called laws, which claim to govern men and affairs discordantly, are being proved not to be laws at all, even though until the advent of Christian Science—the voice of Truth to this age—it seemed impossible to escape from them. Evil, or error, can only claim to exercise dominion; and one can appear to be under its despotic control only so long as he believes it to be real and that it has power. It is in just this way that one can seem to be deprived of his God-given dominion over evil —over the material senses—and kept from realizing the great truth that God, good,—not evil,—controls man; that God, divine Mind, is lovingly governing all from the least idea to the greatest.

In the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah it is written, "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." Mrs. Eddy, our dear Leader, must have clearly understood these words of the prophet when she wrote on page 295 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them." This, then, is an eternal fact of existence: man, the spiritual idea of divine Mind, is directly under the control of divine Mind, is the manifestation of divine Mind. Therefore man cannot be separated from or deprived of the loving control of divine Mind.

Mrs. Eddy, writing on page 62 of Science and Health, says, "The divine Mind, which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal interfere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of erring, human concepts." In this statement Mrs. Eddy indicates the reason for our troubles: we "interfere with God's government" when we allow our mental realm to be occupied with concepts which are based on a material sense of existence, a sense which is always accompanied with suggestions of fear, anxiety, depression, doubt, discouragement, worry, and other erroneous beliefs of the so-called mortal or carnal mind, which, as Paul says, is "enmity against God." The false concepts of this mortal or carnal mind belong to the thought which would separate from the realization of the truth that we are at-one with God and under His loving care and guidance. Not for an instant can man in reality be separated from God, however vigorously error may seem to argue to the contrary; neither can he be separated from eternal Life, Truth, and Love—from divine Mind. Being the perfect reflection of divine Mind, man eternally manifests the qualities of divine Mind.

The burden of false responsibility is lifted as we understand that the "government shall be upon his shoulder"—not upon ours; that the power which "made the earth, and created man upon it" is equal to the task of governing and maintaining that which He made, that which is the very expression of Himself. We shall learn at length that all we ever need to do is to let divine Mind govern, and to eliminate as fast as possible from our consciousness the false belief that there is something that can interfere with His eternal harmonious government of the universe, including our real spiritual selves. False beliefs about God and man are what must be got rid of, and they are all that can ever be destroyed. In proportion as these false beliefs—these misrepresentations about God and man—disappear from consciousness, the true facts of being will appear—divine Mind and its innumerable ideas, each idea under the harmonious control of divine Mind, from which it emanates. Divine Mind being perfect, man and the universe, Mind's expression, could not be other than perfect, and could never cease to express perfection.

These wonderful truths about God and man must be demonstrated; and this is done gradually, as we strive to progress in the understanding of the truth about God, man, and His perfect universe—that which He made and declared to be "good" and "very good." Since it requires sincere, persistent effort on the part of each of us to demonstrate our unity with our Father-Mother God, the sooner we begin the better. By treading down the lesser claims of error that seem to beset our pathway in the journey from sense to Soul,—the journey out of the material sense of existence into the spiritual sense,—we begin to prove for ourselves divine Mind's absolute control, the control of Truth over error, of good over evil. Each demonstration made, however small it may appear to be, will encourage and help us to press onward. We should remember that the smaller demonstrations of control must be made before we can perform the "greater works" that Jesus said we shall yet do.

When we understand the great spiritual truths concerning God and the universe, including man, we can declare with confidence, born of understanding, that God, divine Love, who is the only real power and presence, is governing, sustaining, and protecting all, maintaining all eternally as the perfect image or reflection of Himself. Man, therefore, cannot be controlled by evil, or error; for error, being unreal, has no dominion over man, the perfect image and likeness of God.

On page 319 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy has given us this prophecy and promise: "Mystery, miracle, sin, and death will disappear when it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but God." Can it, then, be truthfully said that any effort on our part is too great to enable us to attain this understanding, since the reward for this attainment is so great? Surely not. So, let us gladly take up the glorious task of gaining an ever increasing understanding of the truth. Each must accept this task for himself sooner or later. Let us, therefore, work consistently, by humbly and prayerfully endeavoring to gain a clearer understanding of the truth each day. While grateful to God, our heavenly Father, for every least indication of spiritual progress, let us not forget to be grateful to Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, who through unselfed love and untiring effort made it possible for all mankind to have a demonstrable understanding of the truth.