Editorial June 27, 1908 Issue

"HOLDING HIS OWN."

Annie M. Knott

What does it mean to hold one's own? We have grown so familiar with this good old Saxon phrase that its deep significance is largely overlooked. When one is very ill it is sometimes said of him that he is "holding his own," which means that in spite of adverse conditions he is holding tenaciously to life. In the light of Christian Science this expression takes on an enlarged meaning. It raises the question, What is one's own? and the answer comes readily to the Christian Scientist; viz., all that God bestows upon His children. Does any one think he has nothing to hold? If he does, he is mistaken! All that the Father hath is ours by reflection, if only we keep the mirror of consciousness clear and free from every stain of earthliness. If we do this, we shall feel and others will see what it means to "possess all things" and none be made poorer by our possessing,—all the love, the truth, the beauty that make up the kingdom of good.

In Paul's famous oration on Mars' hill we read that God "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;... for in him we live, and move, and have our being." This surely includes health and the power to know what "the offspring of God" are and what they rightfully possess. When Paul was at Lystra he healed a man who had been lame from his birth, who had never walked, and this he did by knowing that in God, Spirit (not in matter), "we live, and move." The poor cripple had not known how to hold his own till Paul awakened him to man's rights by saying, "Stand upright on thy feet," and he responded by leaping and walking. To-day thousands are coming to their own, and learning how to hold their own through this same healing ministry of the Christ as revealed anew in Christian Science.

Christ Jesus made a very startling statement when he said, "All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers:... The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." Need we wonder that he said this? He had found humanity robbed, through false belief, of health, happiness, and goodness; worst of all, robbed of the true knowledge of God, the only source of all good. By the healing of "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease," the great Teacher brought to the sick and sinful the knowledge of what belongs to man, and this he did at infinite cost to himself. For nearly three centuries thereafter his followers held their own in the face of the bitterest persecutions, proving that "no foreign foe can quell,"—that so long as we guard our treasures they remain in our possession. In Christian Science we learn to challenge every thought that would enter our consciousness, lest in an unguarded moment the thief enter and we fail to hold our own. Wisely does our Leader admonish us to "stand porter at the door of thought" (Science and Health, p. 392); and this not merely because we might be robbed of our health, but, worse still, of the clear consciousness that God, good, is the only power, the only Mind.

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