Article July 12, 1913 Issue

ONE INFINITE CAUSE

JOHN W. WILSON.

In a book of selections from the Talmud there is a quaint tradition of the early life of Abraham which has a close parallel in the experience of many of those who turn to the Christian Science concept of God for relief from the woes of sense. It runs as follows:—

"From his earliest childhood Abram was a lover of the Lord. God had granted him a wise heart, ready to comprehend and understand the majesty of the eternal, and able to despise the vanity of idolatry. When quite a child, beholding the brilliant splendor of the noonday sun and the reflected glory which it cast upon all objects around, he said, 'Surely this brilliant light must be a god; to him will I render worship.' And he worshiped the sun and prayed to it.

"But as the day lengthened the sun's brightness faded, the radiance which it cast upon the earth was lost in the lowering clouds of night, and as the twilight deepened the youth ceased his supplications, saying, 'No, this cannot be a god. Where then can I find the creator, He who made the heavens and the earth?' He looked toward the west, the south, the north, and the east. The sun disappeared from his view, nature became enveloped in the pall of a past day. Then the moon rose, and when Abram saw it shining in the heavens surrounded by myriads of stars, he said, 'Perhaps these are the gods who have created all things,' and he uttered prayers to them. But when the morning dawned and the stars paled, and the moon faded into silvery whiteness and was lost in the returning glory of the sun, Abram knew God, and said, 'There is a higher power, a Supreme Being, and these luminaries are but His servants, the work of His hands.' From that day, even until the day of his death, Abram knew the Lord and walked in all His ways."

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