Editorial January 26, 1907 Issue

THE ONE THING NEEDFUL

Annie M. Knott

It is deeply interesting to read the many promises to the poor and needy which are to be found in the Old Testament, and when we come to the New, we have the assurance of the Master, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." To many, however, this implies that although the heavenly Father knows the need of His every child, He is not always ready to supply that need, a belief which is contrary to what is taught in Christian Science. According to Christ Jesus, our Father knows our need, but it is doubtful whether mortals themselves know what they really need. Jesus said to one who was "careful and troubled about many things," "But one thing is needful," and no earnest student of Christian Science would question for a moment the truth of this statement, or that the understanding of God was the "one thing" to which the Great Teacher referred. He knew beyond all doubt that the Father—"my Father and your Father"—was more ready to give than they were to receive, and his work was to open wide the channels through which the divine bounty might flow into the needy human sense. He knew that as God is Spirit the supply which comes from such a source must of necessity be spiritual, but he found the needy looking away from Spirit and spiritual things, and then as now, wondering why God did not hear their cries or answer their prayers.

Philip's confident assertion, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," is often echoed at the present day, by those who, like this disciple, fail to see the Father in the very works to which Jesus pointed Philip. Had not the Master fed the hungry thousands by revealing Spirit, not matter, as the source of supply? Had he not met the even greater need of the sick, the sinful, the lame, the deaf, and the blind? Had not "women received their dead raised to life again"? All this Philip must have known, yet he prayed, "Show us the Father." Well might the Master say to all such as he, "But one thing is needful."

And this is the message of Christian Science to all mankind to-day—that our need is to know God, good, and to know Him for what He is, not as human belief has wrongly represented Him. There are many who ask, Why should God answer the prayer of a Christian Scientist when He has failed to answer mine,—has failed to supply my dire need of health or even hope? To this it may be answered that God waits to bless all without any exception, but this is a question of receptivity. Whatever be the human need, it can and will be met if we follow the wise counsel of our revered Leader, "Look away from the body, into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionately to their occupancy of your thoughts" (Science and Health, p.261). No one can deny that this is strictly in line with the Master's teaching, for he said, "Take no thought for the body." Our supreme need is to know God, and to "hold thought steadfastly," as our Leader has said, to the Divine source of all good. Unnumbered thousands who have been lifted out of hopeless suffering through Christian Science, rejoice in knowing that "Divine Love always has met, and always will meet, every human need" (Science and Health, p.494). Knowing this, we have but to turn to Divine Love, or as one has so beautifully expressed it:—

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