Straight and Narrow

Mrs. Eddy tells us that "the way is straight and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God is the only Life" (Science and Health, p. 324). When this statement is first seen it is not generally contemplated with pleasure. The straightness of the way does not disturb us so much, for in accord with past experience and the laws of mathematics a straight line is always the shortest distance between two given points. Ever since the appearing of Adam the whole world has been seeking to reach heaven by the shortest road, and mankind are usually willing to take the shortest way.

But to mortal sense the narrow way does not seem to be pleasant or desirable. We have all come into Science because either we ourselves or some one dear to us has been in bondage to a belief in sin, sickness, or death, and have felt as did the prophet Isaiah when he said, "For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants." We have already awakened to the need of overcoming our limitations in mortal consciousness and have seen how narrow our mental dwellings are. So we have been forced or have come into

Christian Science to enlarge our dwellings, and have done as Joshua bade the children of Joseph, "If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee."

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In Peace Secure
September 9, 1916
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