Article March 7, 1908 Issue

FAITH

GERTRUDE RING.

Every earnest student, as he progresses in the Christian Science thought, must be surprised as well as delighted to acquire a more comprehensive and satisfactory conception of the real meaning of the word faith, as taught in Science and Health, where our beloved Leader explains that this faith must be founded upon spiritual understanding. That wonderful exposition of the marvelous effects of faith given in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, opens with the definition of faith as the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." For a long time this statement was obscure to me. How could anything so intangible as a state of mind be substance, how could one know if he had obtained it, and how could it be more than an elusive asset when possessed?

Those who have attended the Sunday services of our denomination with a loving receptivity of thought can all understand that the true import of similar passages comes to their consciousness as by revelation during the reading, especially if the thought has been prepared the previous week by careful study of the Lesson-Sermon. It has been forcibly borne in upon my mind at such times that this is one of the specific ways in which we receive individual enlightenment, through the colossal and successful effort that has been made by our revered Leader to infuse into determined seekers the wonderful significance of her message.

Thus it was with me as I realized that the mental attitude which declares any desired result as already attained grasps and holds the veritable substance of such desire. And with this experience came the unlocking and opening up of another formerly perplexing line of Scripture, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." In his words, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith," the Master directly ascribes fear to a lack of faith, and in his own dominion over sea and storm demonstrates the "great calm" which faith manifests. Has not many a practitioner felt the sweet sense of prophecy fulfilled as some great mental disturbance has been subdued for others by this action of faith?

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