New Thought Archives

The Mystery of GodNona L. Brooks
Mysteries, 1924.
Divine Science Federation Int’l
3rd Printing, 1977.
Copyright Material
Reprinted by Permission

Men have long believed that they could not know God, and that what the eye of the senses could not behold was an insolvable mystery. Their concept of God was that of an almighty ruler governing the universe invisibly and mysteriously; God had created the world ages ago, and after creation was complete, had departed out of the world, never to be seen of the children of men. He had, however, created the first man and the first woman, before he disappeared from earth to abide far off in the heavens. Hence arose the mystery about God.

When we were children many of us worshiped a different God from the one we are worshiping today. The change is not in God, but in our conception of God. Men conceived a God hidden from his subjects, ruling arbitrarily, and visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children from generation to generation.

The conception of God is changing from this limited belief into the vision of an almighty, loving Father including His world. We are conceiving of God as infinite Life, Love, Intelligence, Power, Joy, bringing forth His Universe by law. Natural science, modern ethics, true religion, emphasize law as the principle of the Universe upon which all life rests. Law is the unchanging method by which God is expressing; it is always true to Divine Being. Law is the basis upon which truth rests. It is the assurance that God is expressing; law is our assurance of good. Our lives, then, are based upon the certainty of the unfailing principle of omnipresent good.

We find that it is comparatively easy for the thought of the twentieth century to understand the concept of the infinitude of God. The infinite universe of form is God in action. God is infinite changeless abundance. The Universe abounds not only in infinite love and power, but in those things needed every day from the greatest unto the least, from the most important to the seemingly least significant. We are awaking to the immediacy of God also. This infinite nearness of God is more difficult of comprehension, however. We can see God in measureless distances and mighty systems, but to see God in the tiny flower and to come to recognize that there is no point in space or on earth where God is not, is more difficult. The concept of the immediacy of God reveals to us that God is in the smallest details of daily living, as well as in the greatest events of the progress of man.

Natural science is marching hand in hand with modern religious conception; one, it is true, uses scientific expression; the other, religious expression. There is, however, small import in terms; according to both conceptions there is one substance. We Divine Scientists spell Substance with a capital; for to us the universe is Substance, and Substance in action. Astronomy shows us that God is responsible not only for the forming, but for the revolution of the planet in its orbit. Chemistry and physics reveal a reign of law, also; biology stands for integrity of expression. Let us not fall short in our thinking; let us keep steadfast, and each hour will show us more of God in action on every hand. The most vivid of life’s experiences is found in the consciousness of the omnipresence of God–love, power, abundance, integrity. To know that the breath of life is the breath of God, that the loving word and deed are God in action, that your strength and my strength are limitless in God, that our gifts and our joys are God’s intent for us, that every right thought and every corresponding action of ours are approved of God, is the greatest of experiences.

The God of integrity is the God of love. God is love, means that God is in action; and God in action is law as well as love. In the light of the unfolding concept of God as love and integrity, we see that all law is beneficent. The God of love knows no unforgiveness. Jesus, through whom we see the Father working, showed in his living and in his teaching what it means to love perfectly; he showed us how to forgive. Jesus taught that the quality of our love for the Father is shown forth in the way we love our fellow men.

Recall the words of the wise in the hours of stress and in times of meditation: “Behold, do I not fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?” Whither, then, shall we flee from Spirit? We are always in the presence of God. It is true, our ideal is so great that our shortcomings stand out in vivid contrast–a contrast which causes us to lose heart at times, and think that we have wandered far from Spirit and truth. This, however, is not true. We are in the presence of God, even though we know it not. Our failings are evidence of separation in our thinking only. It is in the hard experiences, and at times of discouragement, that we should be able to use what we know of truth in order to discern between the true and the false, and to see that God does fill heaven and earth, with His presence, His life, and His abundance. Let us train our thought to realize the immediacy of God, and also to think out with understanding faith into the great expanse of universality. We see God as He is when we learn to see wholeness instead of separation. Might it not be, that we shall come to know the Father as He knows himself, when our vision grows more nearly complete? Then shall we know the fullness that filleth all.

Let us bring God as near as we can get Him. When we do this we shall see reality instead of appearance. When there is something unsightly in that which we see before us, what should be our reaction? So often the seeming defect is all that we see. Our first impulse is to think that God is not there. Why not look through the unsightliness? It is only our concept of the experience–our misconception. True insight proves to us that what we are seeing imperfectly, God is seeing perfectly. The one Creator is bringing forth perfectly.

We are worshiping today a perfect God. Let us keep true to the ideal of perfection in every experience as well as in every thought. It is necessary to see perfection in process and in form, and not to weaken when we see imperfection, for there is no truth in it. Always ask yourself this question, “Is the difficulty in the condition, or is it in my seeing?” The answer will come immediately, if you have kept your attitude true. “I am looking upon that which is by nature perfect.” It is our responsibility to keep our vision true to what we know. What is the reaction then of God to His world? He is His world; He includes it; He is expressing as His world. The true vision reveals God-Life everywhere.

I look upon the desk in my study. It has served me well. I touch it; my senses, true to the old conception of form, report in a certain way. I was trained to see my desk as something entirely different in substance from myself, and to think of matter and Spirit as separate and distinct. From this point of view I have called my desk lifeless. It has always seemed to resist my touch; hence I have called it hard–a solid. I look at the desk, and I see with these two eyes an unbeautiful mass, dull, lifeless, static; I say to you, “This is inanimate matter.” In the old way of looking at the outer manifestations there is no connection between this desk and me, a living organism, except that subject to my will it serves me. Through this kind of thinking the misconception, duality, arose.

The one who is well informed in recent discoveries in the scientific world says to me in answer to my recital of these facts concerning my desk, “You do not understand matter according to the new concept. Nothing that you have said of your desk is true. The senses can never illumine you, even though the eyes see and the touch feels. The mentality is bound by statements long worn out. This desk is not a solid, lifeless mass; it is a center of activity composed of tiny, intelligent, whirling bodies called atoms held in the form which we call a desk by the law of attraction. Matter is a mode of motion; all form is living, intelligent activity.”

There comes to me new meaning in the words of Jesus, “According to your faith be it unto you.” Then, the proverb, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” flashes through my thought. Is it not true that as a man believes about the universe of form and the world of experiences, so is the universe to him; so does he experience? I see my desk in a new light; I see the blade of grass by the wayside with new comprehension. Each is a center of motion, of intelligent activity in the great expanse of universal ether. I no longer perceive deadness but livingness, not matter subject to decay and death, but living substance radiant with the life-principle of universal activity. I see Life as God himself in action. The words of natural science are being heard throughout the land, for scientists are speaking with no uncertain voice, and these words are being received with wondering approval.

We are hearing other voices speaking with authority also. Divine Scientists are saying, “The explanations of natural science accord with our deepest perception of truth. We see God everywhere. We know the Universe as the One Substance in action. A universal God must be present in His creation.” When we say this, we imply all that the natural scientist says about creation or form. We like to say, “There is only God and God in action.” God in action is form; God in action is law. God is infinitely intelligent, and is bringing forth according to His perfect idea. The intelligence of God is evidenced in the law and order of the universe and is manifested as living forms. There is no inanimate matter, for matter, according to Divine Science, is Substance in action. Substance, as we see it, cannot be subject to mishaps and corruption. I like to quote these words of Jesus, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me.” He saw that when thought is lifted up in you and in me, we lift all that is around us. As we lift our thoughts the world around us arises to meet these. All nature and all men are seen in the light of wholeness as perfect expressions of the infinite Creator. Being is perfect. We are Being in manifestation. “In thy light shall we see light.” In this light shall we look upon all that God is making, and with God call it good.

How shall we look at God? With the eyes of Spirit! How shall we think of God? As Universal Expansion; yes, this is easy; but I am making a special plea to all of us to acknowledge God in all our ways–in all expression; to accustom ourselves to the concept of the nearness of God, to the immediacy of the Presence of perfection. When we look at the objects around us, at our bodies, at all nature, let us see to it that the wrong conception shall not dominate, but that we shall perceive with inner vision only intelligent, loving, powerful, harmonious activity–God in action. God is all, both visible and invisible. Let us see as God sees; God sees by the understanding of His love. He knows reality, and never swerves. He sees you and me as perfect expressions of His own idea. God sees us as living soul. He sees our bodies as form, His own Substance in action. Our lives are in God.

The old beliefs are passing; the New Revelation is showing us God in action in every expression of the universe of form. God is His universe. If we raise our eyes to the stars we see the light of God shining through; if we watch for the glory of the sunlight we see God again. Mother Earth and all of her children show us God–Activity radiating love. Nature is God in action; what about the affairs of men? Is God active in these, too? God is working out His universal plan in the affairs of men. Are we cooperating? God is not a ruler of men; He is the very life of men. God works by means of you and me, and of all other people on the earth. Let us be by choice co-workers in the kingdom. There is neither first nor last here. All men are one.

There are neither mysteries nor miracles in the kingdom of God; there is cause and effect, which Divine Science thinks of as one. This is the truth of every day. There are no places where God is not. Our ignorance of the principle of universal love accounts for the lack that we sometimes feel. There is only one way; it is the way to life eternal. The light of truth is ever shining on this path, which leads to reality. The light of truth shows us that there is one Presence and Power, and that this Presence is the only Presence, this Spirit, the only Substance; this Mind, the only Intelligence; this Love, the Universal Nature; this Activity, the only Activity–God.

In God there are no mysteries; there is only light.

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