Editorial August 24, 1912 Issue

UNFAILING TRUTH

Annie M. Knott

Few Christian people would deny that divine Truth must of necessity be unfailing, and yet not many of these are ready to avail themselves of its infinite power and limitless provision for human need in all the varied exigencies of human experience, although the psalmist assures us that divine Truth "endureth to all generations." Many professed Christian have limited the power of Truth to the righting of human wrongs, as expressed in Isaiah, where we find the sorrowful plaint, "None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth;" but in Christian Science we learn to trust in Truth at all times, whether the need be for the healing of some sore sickness, the dispelling of some deep sorrow, or the overcoming of a bitter and stubborn sense of sin,—all these, yes, every ill which besets humanity, can and will be overcome if we, on our part, hold to the eternal fact that divine Truth is changeless and can never fail to "save unto the uttermost."

This question therefore resolves itself into one of human receptivity to Truth, and Christian Scientists may well take counsel of their innermost thoughts in order to learn how often they pause to remind themselves that Truth faileth never, and to ask themselves whether they are ready to risk their all upon this fact. At the last supper Jesus said to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." This is truly the vital consideration for each one who, like Peter, professes to be a follower of Christ Jesus. One test will follow another, but, as we learn in Christian Science, God will not fail us, and it rests with us to prove that our faith will not fail in what to the human sense may seem to be a fiery ordeal. The apostle Paul said the test would be "so as by fire."

In Isaiah we read, respecting the Christ-idea, the divine model: "He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth." In Christian Science we are taught that judgment in accordance with truth extends to our physical condition, so called, as well as to our mental and moral status. For instance, it is not according to divine law that any one should suffer for disregarding an asserted material health law, and Truth understood brings quick deliverance from the bondage which this belief entails. A closer acquaintance with the truth of being is, however, needed to offset the tenacity with which error often seems to hold the mortal sense to physical suffering, and yet all the while Christian Science "shows Truth to be triumphant" (Science and Health, p. 493). Here it is well to bear in mind that "the two-edged sword of Truth must turn in every direction to guard 'the tree of life' " (p. 458). In other words, we must persistently turn away from the illusive material evidence of disease and mortality, denying it with the word of Truth, while we declare for the supremacy of Spirit and spiritual law at every turn of the way, if we would gain perfect freedom.

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