Article August 19, 1916 Issue

Love's Protecting Power

LOUISE KNIGHT WHEATLEY

WHILE Christian Scientists are always grateful for the relief from inharmonious conditions which comes to them through their application of metaphysical treatment to physical disease, it is a question well worth considering whether we are always equally appreciative of that divine protection which in times of danger prevents these inharmonious conditions from manifesting themselves. For instance, after a so-called epidemic has swept the country, visiting perhaps house after house on our very street but leaving our own home untouched, do we always gratefully acknowledge that our immunity lay in our understanding of God and of His perfect laws, or do we carelessly go on our way, glad of course because we are well, but—perhaps unconsciously—holding to the thought that "it just happened so."

Christian Science teaches that nothing just happens so. There is always a reason for everything. There is always a cause back of every effect, and although we do not always recognize this cause as wholly mental, this does not in the slightest degree alter the fact. It does not just happen that "the pestilence that walketh in darkness" enters into some houses and not into others. It goes where it finds the door open. It enters because it can. It is looking for a congenial mental atmosphere to invite its coming and upon which it may thrive and grow. The Christian Scientist keeps it out because he has learned how. He shuts it out by right thinking. He guards the entrance to his mental home, and when this is done he knows that his material home, so called, will take care of itself.

But is he always grateful enough for this ability to avail himself of Love's protecting power? To material sense we live in the midst of danger. We are continually at the mercy of something. When one type of disease plays itself out, another starts in. Many years ago Mrs. Eddy wrote (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 7), "Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease seems the very air;" and times have not appreciably changed since then. Do we always remember to give God thanks for the things which do not happen? What of the exposure to cold followed by no bad results? What of the slippery sidewalk on which we did not fall? What of the abrupt change of food, water, climate, or altitude, which inconvenienced others but affected us not at all? What of the unusual amount of work accomplished without fatigue? What of the exposure to contagion forgotten the next day? What of the sudden desperate emergency in which we did not lose our coolness or our courage? Did all these things just happen so?

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Love's Protecting Power

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access