Article August 23, 1913 Issue

A LAW TO ONE'S SELF

M. G. KAINS, M.S.

One of the most eloquent and significant passages in the Old Testament is found in the twenty-second chapter of Job. It begins at the twenty-first verse, "Acquaint now thyself with him [God], and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee." Then there is outlined what the "good" shall be. The seeker after Truth shall be "built up," his iniquity shall be "put away;" he shall "lay up gold as dust, and ... as the stones of the brooks;" he shall have the defense of the Almighty, to whom he shall make his prayer with the certainty of being heard; and as the climax we find this declaration: "Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways."

Here is more than a prophecy; it is a law,—a law always too little understood until our day. Though countless Christians have believed the preceding verse, which reads, "Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him [God], and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows," and though they have striven to live up to what they firmly believed to be the purport of these words, and have prayed earnestly, and have had their prayers answered more or less definitely in many cases, yet very, very few until recently have known what to make of the declaration about the establishment of the "decree."

The statement cannot be understood except in the true way; and the true way seems to be at variance with the supplicating practise that has been so popularly believed to be the only way of realizing God's presence and power. Not until the advent of Christian Science has this passage had definite significance, except perhaps to the minds of a few spiritually enlightened individuals who have not left any tangible record of their way of decreeing, or proofs that the text was found to be scientifically true and effective in their time, and therefore likely to be true also in this day and age. Without Christian Science it has no explication.

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PERSONALITY OF GOD
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