Article February 1, 1913 Issue

FAITHFULNESS REWARDED

HELEN WARD BANKS.

Christian Science sends its students directly to the Bible, and teaches them to seek in it, not dogmas to support man-made theology, but the deep spiritual truth underlying commandment and beatitude, history and poetry, preaching and parable, the truth of God's omnipotence and of man's oneness with God.

Among all the familiar Bible narratives the story of Daniel carries special significance to Christian Scientists. Viewed in the light of this teaching, it is almost an eptiome of Christian Science demonstrated, and no longer merely a thrilling story of a courageous life. Our first meeting with Daniel shows us that he has already found the Principle of life, and is guided by it. A youth, carried away captive from Judah to Babylon, he at once refused to share in the luxury of the king's table, choosing rather to retain his Hebrew simplicity of diet. For years after that he was at court, a favorite with the reigning monarch, but always living a calm, cheerful, helpful life, untouched by the dissipation and indulgence around him. In a heathen land, he held to his own God and prayed to Him openly.

Finally, Darius, king of the Medes, became ruler of Babylon, and the master as well as the friend of Daniel; but almost at once the king's affection aroused the error of jealousy, that unsuspected stirrer-up of so much discord. If men would but trace all their critical thoughts of others back to their own hurt pride or selfish jealousy, how much nearer the realization of brotherly love we should be! Error then, as now, was too subtle to declare itself the hatred it really was, and assumed the form of zeal for the king. Daniel's manner of living was irreproachable, but error strove to destroy him by his own steadfastness and by the hand of the king who him. Error approached the king in the line of least resistance; it attacked him through his vanity. "O king, live forever," it said; and went on very pleasantly to extol his greatness above that of any god or potentate, demanding that all men should worship only Darius, and that any one who refused should be cast alive into the den of lions. The king, thinking only of the delight of receiving adulation, and not at all of consequences, gave his consent to this edict, the unchanging consent of the Medes and Persians.

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