Article April 1, 1922 Issue

Compassion

MABEL CONE BUSHNELL

To the Christian Scientist, working to know more of his God and to understand what real being is, that he may be enabled to live a better life among men, the definite demands of Truth sometimes seem almost appalling. Personal sense has such a way of pretending to be true, and attempts so clearly to argue to one's thinking as a reality, that human inclinations appear to throw the balance wheel in the wrong direction. The honest worker in Christian Science wants to be right, wants to do right; yet his accomplishments fall so far short of his desires that he finds discouragement many times endeavoring to cause him to feel that the end does not justify the thorny road he must tread. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," is the command and the ultimate goal—and all may reach it; but how many human footsteps will be needed, cannot be foretold. It is in the taking of these human footsteps that one finds himself many times crying on in his seeming helplessness for the compassionate, loving care that the Father-Mother, God never fails to bestow. It is not the cry of false theology, which would have us appeal to a corporeal God to come and take us out of hell; but it is the righteous desire of an honest heart to see more clearly the divine Principle which has already fulfilled man's every need.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p.81) Mrs. Eddy tells us that "in the desolation of human understanding, divine Love hears and answers the human call for help." Over and over again we find the question attempting to intrude: Why do I have this problem to solve? Now, if we can only remember that the problem is there to be solved because there is a right way to solve it, and through it possibly some much needed lesson is to be gained; or better still, if we can mentally rise to the recognition that through the destruction of this particular belief, whatever it may be, the human race will be benefited because that one belief is destroyed,—proved unreal,—we shall cease our repining. And in the degree that we do cease to repine and begin instead to rejoice, in that degree is the healing at hand; in that degree is the compassion of the heavenly Father felt. "Love never faileth," as we read in the Revised Version; and the Principle of all good operates for all time, actively, continuously, and with perfect justice: but during a storm it is sometimes difficult for the mariner to tell whither his course leads, even though his compass unerringly points the way. Setting aside, however, his own imperfect sense of direction, he trusts his ship and the little world contained therein to the course the compass directs. It is the compass of Principle,—this unchangeable, all-encircling, compassionate guidance of divine Love,—which shows us how to go ahead; and which, if we are obedient, tells us when to proceed, enabling us to clear the path for the next human footstep. So many times in an hour of need we find that the only safe way for any of us is to obey the counsel given us in Psalms, "Be still, and know that I am God;" quietly to eliminate the sense of personal self that so impudently intrudes its ways and means upon the thought, and patiently wait for the guidance of Love.

The instinct of fearful, mortal sense is to go blindly ahead, determined to solve the problem, whatever it may be, in its own way; and this headlong instinct, or the forcing of any situation, never made a Christian Science demonstration. The keynote of all Christ Jesus' work lay in his "Be not afraid;" and the more clearly we can see this, the better the demonstration we shall make. It is fear that often makes us force an issue, that makes us take a misstep, that induces us to try to evade a situation; but if we will just quietly stop to remember that the all-encompassing love of the Father is ever present, we shall manifest the fearless action of divine intelligence in our words and deeds.

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