Article April 27, 1912 Issue

THE TRUE MOTIVE FOR STUDY

HOWARD C. VAN METER.

The majority of those who investigate the teachings of Christian Science are persons who are pressed to obtain relief from some condition, physical or otherwise, which is troublesome even if not a serious menace to their well-being and happiness. Being forced to find something to harmonize the situation, the investigator begins to read the literature of Christian Science with a more or less defined need in mind which he hopes will be met. As he continues, he is frequently tempted to pause and see to what extent the trouble is abating. If progress is not evident, he may be inclined to think he is not gaining any understanding of the teaching. It is necessary, therefore, to give consideration to the apparent association of these mental tendencies, in order that discouragement be avoided, and the writer has frequently found it helpful in such instances to call attention to the deep import of the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in its relation to the problem of salvation from all evil.

At the foundation of all Christian admonition we find the words of the Master, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Again, he declared to Pilate, as a reason for his existence, that he came to "bear witness unto the truth." In the latter statement he voiced the object of all creation, to bear witness to the truth about the creative Principle or First Cause. It may be said that the recognition of this fact, including as it does the individual's part in the whole, will inspire the reader of Science and Health with a purpose which he had not formerly entertained, viz., that of obtaining a knowledge of God in order to understand himself in the capacity of a manifestation or effect of the creative Principle. This will change his attitude from that of a mere reader to that of a student, and he will likely experience in the increased area of satisfaction the freedom indicated by the removal of the infirmity which had impelled him to seek Christian Science. Until his reading is with a definite purpose, based upon a proper sense of the situation, the inquirer is liable to grope his way in a more or less blind fashion, although the general goodness contained in the book will not leave him where he was at the outset.

The writer read the Christian Science text-book five years before any appreciable growth was observed. He is not deserving of any commendation for his perseverance, because there was no evidence of the essentials which inspire that desirable quality of mind. His reading was due to a certain consideration for one who had been healed after many years of semiinvalidism and who had become very much interested. Because of no better incentive, he read carelessly and without grasping to any extent the underlying purpose. Suddenly, and to him startlingly, he found an inquiry urging itself, Why are we here? What does creation mean and what is the reason for it? Jesus' words to Pilate answered the question, and at once the whole trend of the writer's experience began to change. There was no longer a disposition to drift aimlessly along through life without a thought of responsibility, since a deep fact had been discerned which was henceforth to be the prime factor in his experience; and he set earnestly to work to study with a view of gaining a demonstrable knowledge of God and man's relation to Him. Whatever progress he has made dates from that point, which it had apparently taken five years to reach.

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