Editorial May 3, 1913 Issue

"WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN?"

Annie M. Knott

The psalmist's query, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" is of deep significance to students of Christian Science, especially when they ponder their Leader's words respecting the same. She quotes from the forty-second psalm, in which these words occur, first the mournful question, then the response of spiritual sense, which says, "Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Then she adds these words from another psalm: "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases," and asks, "This being the case, what need have we of drugs, hygiene, and medical therapeutics, if these are not man's preservers?" (Christian Science versus Pantheism, p. 4).

The psalms give a wonderful model for prayer, for while the downcast human sense pours forth its plaint, spiritual sense declares for the permanence and power of divine law, and in this we find a picture of all human experience, its manifold sorrows and sufferings, with the light of spiritual being but faintly discerned. At the same time we see throughout the entire Scriptures, as in present-day experience, how efficacious is even a gleam of spiritual understanding, for this light, leading ever to its divine source, becomes brighter and brighter, the hope in God's power to restore health becoming in due season the realization of Truth's majesty expressed in the words, "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies."

Now the very question, "Why art thou cast down?" point to the changeless fact that none of God's children should ever be cast down. It is alas too true that mortals have sinned and suffered throughout long centuries, but this has been because of their belief in another power than God, Spirit, and with strange inconsistency they have chosen to attribute many of their ills to God, while they have turned to matter and mortal mind (which are really one and the same) for relief from their woes, even while calling upon God to stay His chastening hand. It is also true that so long as this false view of God and man is entertained, there can be no real change in respect to the suffering, and material means and methods at their best can only prolong the tragedy of mortal experience. Happily, however, full and complete deliverance from all this misery of mortal belief was offered by Christ Jesus, and not only so, but full proof given by him that the truth he taught would bring entire salvation from sickness, sin, and death. And did the world accept this truth which sets men free? A goodly number of sufferers did, but the world, as represented by a materialistic theology and statecraft, rejected it because its demands were purely spiritual. More than this, in their effort to crush it out the "rulers of the darkness" condemned Jesus to death, and for a brief moment terrorized his followers; but when their Master rose from the tomb, and appeared before them in demonstration of the truth he had taught, they were stronger than before and were thus better prepared to do the works which he required of all who profess to follow his teachings.

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