Editorial January 14, 1911 Issue

"OUR SUFFICIENT GUIDE."

Archibald McLellan

The first religious tenet of Christian Science, on page 497 of Science and Health, reads: "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life." Not only in this clear and concise declaration, but throughout Mrs. Eddy's writings, we find her continually advising Christian Scientists to turn to divine Principle, God, who is infinite intelligence, for the solution of the problems which often confront them.

It is true that this counsel of our Leader is but a reiteration of the Scriptural teachings with which Christians have been familiar for centuries: "He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him;" "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... and it shall be given him;" "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;" "In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God,"—promises for whose fulfilment one might well strive if thereby he should attain to the realization of their glorious hope. In the old way of thinking, however, it was difficult to do this, because of the many and largely imperfect concepts of God held by mankind, and because of the tacit belief that it is much easier to follow the broad road of human will and human desire than to tread the straight and narrow way which Christ Jesus pointed out for his followers; hence the supposition that pleasure and profit were to be found only in the ways of the world, while bondage and loss attended those who conformed to good.

One of the great results of Mrs. Eddy's ministry to mankind has been the change which has come about in the popular thought about God, an apprehension which has made Him more accessible to mankind. Through her teachings Christian Scientists have learned that He is not "a God afar off," but truly "a very present help in trouble;" not a God of wrath and vengeance, but the loving Father-Mother of man; that they who "seek of him a right way," as did the prophet of old, find that His ways are ways of pleasantness and peace. They find that by conforming their lives to His will they lose nothing of value, but gain the kingdom of heaven.

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