Article February 10, 1912 Issue

"WHOSO HEARKENETH"

BLANCHE HERSEY HOGUE.

We are told in the book of Proverbs that whoso hearkeneth unto God "shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." The students of Christian Science are being lovingly persuaded, by the demonstrability of the Christianity and the Science revealed to them in the Scriptures as interpreted in our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that they have found a usable, provable, all-satisfying way of hearkening to God.

Through the statements of Truth peculiar to the teaching of Christian Science, thinkers are being made aware of the all-power, ever-presence, and ever-beneficence of God, of His nature and law, and of His unfailing availability to man. They are shown how to open their thoughts to His presence, and how to preserve unbroken unity with His thinking by themselves thinking the divine thoughts which link them to Him. In "precept upon precept, line upon line," they are shown the processes of spiritual thinking and how they may be adopted by men to displace material thoughts and desires. The way to listen to God is made plain, it only remains for us to want God, to search for Him, to give Him first place in the affections; we are to hearken, in short, at all times to His law and to His commandment.

Human reasoning may concede logically that God is All-in-all and that evil is correspondingly neither true nor eternal. We may want to be healed, want less trouble, want more ease and comfort; we may even believe that Christian Science is the way through which these good things appear. None of this, however, is necessarily nor of itself "hearkening" to God; and no true peace or healing comes rightly and permanently to us until we find the difference between the letter and the spirit of Christianity and learn to distinguish intellect and selfishness from the humble desire to become mentally one with all that is divine. Really our thoughts are not wholly hearkening to God so long as any earthly thing can divert us from the search for God. We naturally give most attention to the things most dear to us. Listening honestly for the voice of God is too often a secondary matter. And this accounts in large part for the slow and roundabout progress many of us make.

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