Editorial October 9, 1909 Issue

FAITH'S ONLY ANCHORAGE

John B. Willis

Of all human possessions, none surely is so essential to our peace and progress as to have and maintain a thought of God that enables us to escape the assaults of doubt which untoward earthly experience is forever precipitating, and which eventuate in the moral wreck of so many careers. Today the injunction of the Master is again heard, "Be not faithless, but believing;" and that we may fulfil it, the Christ-concept of God and of man has again been revealed through Christian Science.

However much the worldly wisdom of physical science may contribute to creature comfort and dominion over material things, it throws no light whatever upon the deep problems of life, gives no explanation of the nature and philosophy of being; and those who have the largest opportunity to profit by the achievements of this wisdom bear testimony to the fact that, as a whole, peace of mind and satisfaction of heart are not increased thereby. On the other hand, Christian believers have always accepted Christ Jesus statement that to know God "is life eternal," but in consenting to the materialistic concept of substance and reality their truth has, to human sense, been pitifully entangled with error. Their thought of God has not met "the heart's great need." because of its fundamental contradictions. Thus the inquiring and the troubled have found themselves floundering between a so-called science which, having nothing to do with causation, cannot even consider their deepest questions, and a Christianity which has harbored hopeless incongruities in the major premise of its philosophy of things, its concept of the only cause and creator.

Into this situation Christian Science has come, not to bring an immediate answer to all questions, but to name and honor an absolutely consistent and unimpeachable Deity, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and to supply, in the perfect nature of the immediate source of all being, the basis of an intelligible order of things. More than this, it proceeds in a scientific way to prove by healing works the verity of its point of view. The moment one acquires a sense of God which satisfies both head and heart, and which is found to be adequate to the solution of today's problems, that moment faith has found its anchorage. He can now contentedly say, "I don't know," regarding many a heretofore perplexing question, and for the reason that he has begun to know the God whom Christ Jesus revealed, and on whom he effectively relied. To this God he can commit every problem that lies without the compass of his own apprehension. He knows that a finite sense cannot apprehend the manifestations of an infinite intelligence, and hence that there must be many questions which are at present beyond his ken. He remembers his Leader's statement, "To understand God is the work of eternity" (Science and Health, p. 3), and freely concedes his relatively meager knowledge of divine Principle, but he rejoices in that demonstration of healing which removes all doubt as to the correctness of his deductions so far as he has gone. Understanding has become the haven of faith; he knows that he knows somethings aright: he has reached "a point beyond faith," and is following "the footsteps of Truth" (ibid., p. 241).

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