Article November 22, 1913 Issue

In the Hour of Need

ROBERT NALL

What is a Christian Scientist to do when, through no fault of his own, he finds himself in a perplexing situation? The simplest answer is, Do that which is right. If he is a Christian Scientist in thought, word, and deed, he will know how the mists of doubt and fear can be dispersed and his course of action made quite clear. To him Christian Science is this, —once put by Mrs. Eddy in the fewest possible words,—"To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual and eternal, is to individualize infinite power" (The Christian Science Journal, August, 1904). This power is not intermittent; it is always available; but there are many students who have as yet grasped only a very small proportion of what Science should mean to them and to humanity. They are still on the threshold of faith; they see the dawn of a new life; they are conscious that some impulse for good is beckoning them to press on, with the assurance that the ultimate will be a rich reward. Such are calling, like Goethe, for more light, and there are times when this call becomes intensified. This is common experience, and will continue to be so while error persists in its claim to dominate human thought and mortals yield to it.

The remembrance of this has sometimes a discouraging influence upon those whose minds are not yet solidly stayed on Truth; but this is just a passing phase of that dream life from which we are all bidden to awake, so that we may find our rightful heritage in the kingdom which it is the Father's good pleasure to give us. There never was a time when Christian Scientists, whatever stage of progress they may have reached in the apprehension and demonstration of spiritual truth, needed to be more alert, and to manifest greater fidelity to every fundamental idea which is included in the divine Principle, God.

The writer lives in a large city which has recently been convulsed with an epidemic of disease. All the forces of error were aroused. All those beliefs about matter which we know to be the falsities of human sense were rampant. Materia medica made its insistent appeal; and though the disease only assumed what was admitted to be a very mild form, there was an insistent demand, accompanied by statistical "facts" and gloomy pictures of what might happen, for those stringent material measures which are the ultima thule of all mortal concepts in dealing with mortal error. The bulk of the community were obsessed with fear, either that they would be attacked with disease, or that their material circumstances would be affected by a threatened "falling off in business." What an object-lesson it was to those who could look on calmly from the higher standpoint of Truth and Love! And what an opportunity they had of showing that divine Love, the ever-present Saviour, will keep in perfect peace all who have come to a right understanding of God and man's relation to Him!

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