Editorial July 25, 1914 Issue

How to Know

Annie M. Knott

There are few if any who in some moments of their lives would not give all they possess just to be surre of one thing,—to know that God is and that He cares for them. This very longing, which sometimes verges on hopelessness, is yet a tremendous proof that what they fain would know is the only thing worth knowing in this wide world, and that when one's hope becomes assurance, he has begun to live. Christ Jesus, who knew the meaning of life so well that he could bring it even to those who were asleep in the dream of death, declared that to know God is life, yes, eternal life, which means a consciousness so intense that nothing can overshadow it or separate it from its source, the one who is "Lord and giver of Life," as Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 4 of "Pulpit and Press." To this she adds, "Reflect this Life, and with it cometh the full power of being."

As we read the gospels, we find all of Jesus' words and works pointing in one direction, that is, toward life and away from death and the grave, and yet in so doing he aroused the bitterest antagonism of mortal mind, "because," he said, "I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." We are also told that there was much dispute as to his teaching, some maintaining that he was a good man, others contending that he was deceiving the people. His answer to both is of tremendous significance to us today. He said: "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." Whatever may be thought or said, there is no other way to be sure that God is, and that His tender care for all His children is the one thing certain, for the assurance is, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." The all-important thing for us is to do God's will, as the Master declared, and then we shall understand man's relation to God and realize at each step of the way the divine provision for all human need.

Those who come to Christian Science for help, whether they believe in God at all or doubt His existence, gain in most cases a wonderful illumination from the very start. It is as if a veil had been taken away, or a door opened which leads into "the secret place of the most High." Even more intense is this illumination, this discovery of spiritual sense, when one attempts to do God's will in the way that Jesus did, and as he commanded when he said, "Heal the sick." This explains Paul's experience when on the way to Damascus. He was engaged in persecuting those who were striving to do God's will, and when the light of Truth suddenly burst upon him, his material sense of sight gave way. "But," Mrs. Eddy tells us, "spiritual light soon enabled him to follow the example and teachings of Jesus, healing the sick and preaching Christianity" (Science and Health, p. 324), and after doing this work for years, he did not hesitate to write to Timothy, "I know whom I have believed."

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