Article September 7, 1912 Issue

OPPORTUNITIES, NOT TESTS

CORA A. HARRINGTON.

It is often said of one who is passing through some seemingly hard experience, that it will be a test of his character; that he will stand or fall as he manifests strength or weakness. While this may seem to be true of our purely human concept of man, when we leave that behind and gain the knowledge of the true man,—the image and likeness of God, who is Life, Truth, and Love,—we come into the knowledge that man cannot fall, for "underneath are the everlasting arms."

Mrs. Eddy tells us that "trials are proofs of God's care" (Science and Health, p. 66). Surely, then, we may not feel that any experience, however seemingly hard, is a test of our poor human strength, but simply an opportunity of proving more of God, an opportunity to grow into a larger wisdom and knowledge of His love. Sometimes our lives flow on in such pleasant, easy channels that we seem sufficient unto ourselves, and for the time we may forget that we are God's children, until some trial makes us again feel our need of the guidance of divine Love; thus does the seeming trial become an opportunity and a blessing.

We need God every day of our lives and every hour and moment of each day, that erring human thoughts may be corrected or replaced by divine thoughts until they become transformed into the likeness of the one Mind. We need to turn continually to our Father-Mother God, just as little children turn to the mother love in their every need, joyfully knowing that all will be well when that love is found. Then will the consciousness of God's dear presence become to us like a beautiful harmony, to which we may attune our daily living. Filled with this consciousness, inharmony cannot enter in, for every seeming trial will only cause us to turn more fully to divine Love, and the greater our need the greater will be the love which flows forth to meet it, since it comes from an inexhaustible source.

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