Editorial November 11, 1905 Issue

True Helpfulness

Annie M. Knott

Those who come into Christian Science find themselves regarding all things from a changed viewpoint; for them old things have indeed "passed away," and often they are led to pause and ask how they shall most consistently fulfil their obligations, as followers of Christ Jesus, when the problem of poverty confronts them. Christian Science brings a quickened sense of sympathy for all human need, and the realization that material methods have fully proved their inability to supply that need. The Psalmist says, "The earth is full of thy riches," yet in spite of the evidences of divine bounty, dire distress and want prevail among mortals. Jesus' words, "The poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always," may be taken as a reproach to that poverty-stricken condition of thought which fails to discern and appropriate "the unsearchable riches of Christ." One thing is sure, viz., it is a Christian act to help those in need; the question is how we can best do it. No one can be blamed if he give of that which is to him most precious.

The student of Christian Science, to be consistent, must ever keep in view the basic teaching of this Science, not only in working out his own problems, but also in his efforts to help others. He can no more accept the testimony of material sense in respect to poverty than to sickness. In Genesis we are told that when Adam complained that he was naked, God asked him, "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" and this question was followed by a stern inquiry as to whether Adam had eaten of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. With the Adam sense comes the belief in poverty and all other ills; with Christ, Truth, comes the only remedy.

This question was once discussed by some young students of Christian Science, and the thought was brought out that if we offer for human want anything less than the best, we only prolong the struggle with error. Soon after, one of these students had an opportunity to test her understanding of Truth in the case of a man who was, according to sense testimony, very ill and very poor. She freely gave her services in overcoming the first-named condition, and then was tempted to offer material aid for the other, but she saw the wisdom of leading the patient's thought up to where he could claim his spiritual inheritance. The result was that he soon received a sum of money which had been due him for a considerable time, and he thus recognized the operation of the law of justice and the law of Love. In another case, a student went on for weeks supplying the material wants of a family, but felt too timid to offer the truth, lest they should consider this aid intangible. She then woke up to the fact that no advance was being made, and asked another worker to take up the case. This was done, and in a week the sick father of the family was healed, and after a successful struggle with the stupefying influence of tobacco, which he had indulged in, even when his children were without food, he sought and found remunerative employment.

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