Article December 11, 1909 Issue

"MEEKNESS AND MIGHT"

ANNE ARCHBOLD MILLER.

Perhaps no words more fully express what Mrs. Eddy calls the "meekness and might" of Jesus than these: "I can of mine own self do nothing." But what worlds of might the meekness of those words implies. Again, he said, "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Thus was there no limit to the power for which Jesus was the channel, because he absolutely renounced material selfhood, thus giving the Father free course "to will and to do of his good pleasure."

In the working out of the problem of erasing belief in material selfhood from our consciousness, it were equally as presumptuous to stand abashed before a problem presenting itself to us for solution, and permitting a sense of inability to govern us, as is the opposite extreme, the extreme which prompts us to assume the credit of an attainment as personal, which permits self-pride to govern us, and which loftily thanks God that we are not as other men. If we but give these words of Jesus an abiding-place in our consciousness, it would seem as if fear or self-pride could find no entrance. The admission of the all-power of Truth brings the beautiful assurance that if fear and pride are forgotten, and the love of our Cause is uppermost, Truth will voice itself; and thus voiced, in the words of our Father, will inevitably be both comforting and convincing, and create a desire for more.

The thought was beautifully brought out in one of our Lesson-Sermons, that as we demonstrate such spiritual understanding as we have, God's messages, "spiritual intuitions" (Science and Health, p. 581), will voice themselves through us, regardless of our previous education, and we shall declare the things of Spirit. We are often placed in a position where a statement of truth is essential for the defense of our Cause, when silence would imply only weakness. Then, if we but forget self, and remember Jesus' words, "And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say."—then Truth will voice itself, and our words will be not of ourselves, but of the Father. The Master said, "Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."

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