Article February 25, 1911 Issue

THE PASSING OF A PROVERB

CLARA ISERMAN.

In her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 155), Mrs. Eddy says, "Methinks, were they [students] to contemplate the universal charge wherewith divine Love has entrusted us, in behalf of a suffering race, they would contribute oftener to the pages of this swift vehicle of scientific thought." These words being my incentive, I pass on to others a helpful thought discovered while studying the words of Ezekiel, that prophet of good. Attention was arrested by the statement, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." This proverb evidently was intended to charge the blame of their present suffering upon their fathers.

Ezekiel answered first by a denial, and then declared that the righteous man lives, and that the wicked son of a righteous man dies; also that the righteous son of a wicked father lives, and then he stated the law that God deals directly with individuals. The sinner forsaking sin should live. The saint, if he turn to sin, must die. After which follows the appeal to Israel to "turn yourselves, and live ye," sounding like a loving call directed to the individual. In those days of persistent and wilful corruption, while idolatry possessed the hearts of the children of Israel, the only answer of God could be that men even as righteous as Noah, Daniel, or Job, could not prevent the working out of the law of justice, but only save their own souls by their own righteousness.

The truth of this thought recalled the knowledge gained through a study of Jeremiah, wherein he declared the salvation of Israel did not depend so much upon the condition of nation, state, or church, as upon individual knowledge that the only propitiation which would appease God was a return to the ways of righteousness—nothing short of a reformation of the individual could bring direct communication with divine Love and Truth. True religion then, as now, was and is an affair of the conscience, and the first requirement is a regeneration of the heart, according to Jesus' teaching. As to the way, Jesus said the "Spirit of truth" would be our instructor in all the truth, and this instructor is now known as divine Science!

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THE RIGHT SPIRIT
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