Article November 12, 1910 Issue

PRINCIPLE—NOT CHANCE

MARY THORN

Not long ago, while speaking with a fellow-teacher about the element of chance which entered into a game that the boys were playing on the school grounds, she remarked, "Well, life is a gamble." As I thought over her words afterward, I recalled that, before studying the teaching of Christian Science, life often seemed to me to be governed by blind forces, and that there were times when in human affairs luck seemed to be a factor which had to be reckoned with. That there could be an intelligent Principle, which operated to destroy the sense of evil and suffering in human life, and bring to light a perfect and harmonious sense of being, was beyond my highest hope—a thought too good to be true.

The study of Christian Science, however, has opened up to me a view of life in which the element of chance or luck does not enter. The Science of being, as taught by our Leader in Science and Health and her other writings, presents an absolute and unfailing Principle of good. This divine Principle is available to all, and in proportion as it is understood and applied to the problems of every-day life, it makes possible the correct solution of these problems, and thus eliminates wrong answers which might otherwise appear as various forms of disease. Right thinking is thus proved to be the way out of error, and Jesus' words are demonstrated: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

One who is daily seeking to gain freedom from error by knowing and reflecting Truth, is being lifted out of the ignorance and fear of material sense existence into the pure atmosphere of Spirit, where divine Mind alone governs. Spiritual ideas which constitute the real universe become tangible to him, the law of righteousness is understood and applied, and the omnipotence and omnipresence of divine Love are demonstrated. The home, the shop, and the street become the laboratory in which he works to prove the truth of "the fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics" (Science and Health, p. 113). In the solution of these problems, through the application of divine Principle, the student of Christian Science is not only setting himself free from the sense of physical discord that assails him, but he is proving the falsity of all sense testimony and thus yielding to the government of divine Mind; thus the solution of every problem becomes to him one of those "stepping-stones of their dead selves," on which men rise to "higher things." Such a one, seeking to know the will of God and to be governed by it in all things, asks for no amulet or charm of good luck. He consults neither clairvoyant nor astrologist to learn his future or to gain counsel about his business. He knows that he is the child of an infinitely tender and loving Father, that all that belongs to this Father is his also, and that he has only to turn to Him in loving obedience and gratitude to receive all that he needs.

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