Article August 22, 1914 Issue

Our Work

JOSEPH B. BAKER

Our work as practitioners of Christian Science is to heal, and only secondarily and incidentally are we to expound the letter of Science, until such time as this work is accomplished, or at least well under way. As Mrs. Eddy writes on page 414 of Science and Health, "Explain Christian Science to them, but not too soon,—not until your patients are prepared for the explanation,—lest you array the sick against their own interests by troubling and perplexing their thought." What would be thought of the cook who neglected the serving of meals to read recipes to her busy and hungry employers, or of the locomotive engineer who let the time of departure of his train go by in order to lecture to his passengers on the expansive force of steam? While the cook might very well inform some one who asked her about her work, and the engineer might find time to explain to an inquirer how the steam turned his driving-wheels, each would understand that such instruction should not be given at the expense of the work regularly expected of them, the practice of their respective professions.

In the grandest and most glorious of all professions, Christian Science, should we depart from the practice of this Science in order to expatiate on doctrinal points, when our brother shows so plainly to the alertly compassionate heart that he needs to be healed? Should we "talk Science" to him, if doing so means leaving the healing undone? In Job we read, "Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold." Let us acknowledge God's allness in the very beginning of every treatment. Let us "bind up the brokenhearted," and be sure to hold the right thought and give the encouraging, the helpful word in season; then, if opportunity comes, utter the precept, a seed dropped into soil prepared by divine Love.

With the right motive, love for God and man, and the right purpose, the destruction of all error, we shall at least hold in abeyance obstreperous selfhood, which would spoil our well-meant efforts to help the world to Christian Science. Jesus said very earnestly, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do," and our Leader has written, "Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence" (Science and Health, p. 264). The world, no less than the practitioner of Christian Science, is waiting for these evidences, and the world must see them of its own accord. If we continually remembur that we may safely undertake to offer less instruction in the letter of Christian Science, if by so doing we may accomplish more of healing, we shall then be "faithful over a few things," and so find the way to greater usefulness.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Our Work

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access