Article February 8, 1913 Issue

TRUTH'S CALL

MARY BROOKINS

However much the realities of being may be obscured to mortal sight by the dust and rubbish of tradition and illusion, it cannot be questioned that there is consciously present with every one some apprehension of and longing for Truth for its own sake,—a willingness, a desire, more or less clearly defined, to be guided and controlled by Truth. But, on the mistaken premise that there are lives many, minds many, made and governed by a Deity outside of and apart from man, mortals mistake their own dim perception of the divine leading for the actual and special intervention of Providence in the ordering of the details of daily life. Thus there grows out of this misconception of the divine ruling, the belief that God is partial, that His favors are unequally bestowed, that His demands vary in different cases, and that He even ordains some of His children to be saved to the enjoyment of His grace and favor, and others to be eternally lost.

Among the first lessons to be learned in Christian Science is this: that much which has been held as settled and established, on the testimony of tradition and material sense, is denied and annulled by the higher evidence of spiritual sense. A further knowledge of the divine teaching reveals the startling fact that every statement, every interpretation growing out of finite material belief concerning God and man, must be and is reversed and rejected, as the eternal truth of being appears. So it will be found in this matter of the divine ruling in human affairs. Mrs. Eddy says that "immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so called, as well as in the spiritual" (Science and Health, p. 427). But how is this acknowledgment to be made? By knowing surely that the "physical realm, so called," has only seeming existence as a false concept of the spiritual realm, which is, and was, and ever will be, God's real creation, held forever in the order and beauty and continuity of unchangeable and eternal law. Then, as the erring belief in a material creation, controlled in some uncertain, haphazard way, is discovered to be without foundation or reality, its forms and outlines begin to fade from human sense, and the divine government in the realm of the real becomes more and more apparent, shining through. That man is divinely called and divinely governed there can be no question, and it is our highest interest to understand the nature and import of that call and that control, for in so doing we learn to know ourselves and our place in the divine economy.

There is a prevalent theory in mortal mind that God specially calls certain chosen ones to preach the gospel and endows them with peculiar powers for the work. So He does; but so "the Lord hath called every one," as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, instead of a select and limited number. Preaching the gospel, however, means much more than simply giving audible expression to the words of Truth. Truth should be expressed in the pulpit, but it should be expressed in the pews as well, and in the daily walk and conversation of the church as a whole. For are not the members in their true character all "kings and priests unto God"? Then should each be found so demonstrating Truth, so manifesting Love in all ways, that the order and harmony of the divine government will be felt and the church be "none other but the house of God,"—the very gate of heaven, through which many may enter into the realization of good, the true heritage of the children of God. Thus is the gospel preached in thoughts of good, made manifest in worthy deeds; and when it is so, neither words nor deeds are wanting to herald its good tidings.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

CONQUERING PERSONAL DESIRES