Editorial February 26, 1916 Issue

"Look unto me"

Annie M. Knott

In the olden time, when the children of Israel were on the way to the land which to them was a type of man's divine inheritance, they were warned by Moses never to stray from the straight and narrow path of Truth. In the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy we read: "Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left." This warning against divergence from the way indicated by divine wisdom may also be taken as an admonition against the tendency of mankind to go to extremes in their attempts to bring out harmony. On page 215 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says, "The tendency of mortal mind is to go from one extreme to another." Then she adds, "Let us depart from the material sense of God's ways and means, and gain a spiritual understanding of them."

At the present time some are asking whether it is better to depend mainly upon silent declarations of truth, in the treatment of patients, or to instruct them in Christian Science. To this it may be answered that no fixed rules can be given for Christian Science practice other than those which are found in our Leader's writings, especially in Science and Health and in the Manual. Intelligent discrimination must be made by the practitioner, in view of the different mental states of those who ask for treatment, but without any exception patients should be advised and encouraged to work out their own salvation, so far as this is possible. The aim of the practitioner should ever be to lift his patient's thought to Almighty God, known in Christian Science as infinite Principle, ever present Life and Love, that the words spoken of old—"Look unto me, and be ye saved, . . . for I am God, and there is none else"—may bring assurance of salvation from sin, disease, and death.

It is never wise to enter into discussion with patients over vexed theological problems, but this does not mean that their eager questionings are to be merely silenced, as was done in too many cases before they came to Christian Science. They can be given fundamental truth from our text-book and told to ponder and practise it. They can also be given sound counsel, such as that found in the first epistle of Peter, wherein we are told that we must lay aside "all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings." Then, "as newborn babes," those awakening to spiritual reality are bidden to "desire the sincere milk of the word." The "strong meat" will come when the Truth-seeker is ready for it, but the babe cannot be left to starve while he is awakening to the importance of reaching out for the life-giving nutriment. The psalmist's words, "My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God," really describe the longings of all men, whether they know it or not. Let us, therefore, feed both sheep and lambs when they come to us, and do it wisely, and let us see to it that the hungry do not go away unsatisfied and unhealed.

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