Article February 10, 1917 Issue

The Refining Fire

W. K. PRIMROSE

In these days when so many people are finding themselves face to face with what appears the total loss of all they possess; when men are leaving their homes and giving up their profession or business to join the army or navy or otherwise serve their country, it is not to be wondered at that almost every one is asking the why and the wherefore and the meaning of it all. Never before perhaps have men thought and questioned and reasoned so deeply, and as the rude awakening goes on old standards and household gods are proved valueless.

Amid this cataclysm the Christian Scientist can stand calm and undismayed, and prove to the world that he has a reason for the faith that is in him; and that such proof is not wanting is evidenced by the vast number of people who today are in consequence turning to Christian Science in their extremity. There are few, if any, who have been left untouched by the vast tidal wave that is at present surging over more than half the world, and it is interesting to note how varied are the problems which confront the individual and how differently they are regarded. Yet are they fundamentally so varied after all? Are they not all fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"? and despite the variety of kinds of fruit, does not the problem which confronts the individual in each case resolve itself into that of proving the unreality of evil?

Sometimes, when a person is going through what seems to be a very trying experience, one hears surprise expressed that such a person had to do so. Surely, it is said, his understanding of Christian Science was sufficient to have saved him from it. In answer to this, we gladly pause to consider the character of Jesus of Nazareth, of whom we read that he "was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe" (Science and Health, p. 313). He is also admitted by all professed Christians to be our Exemplar. If we turn to the Bible we find that Jesus himself declared that "the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Yet Jesus never lacked. On the contrary, he fed the multitude and found the tribute money in the fish's mouth. Consequently, when we come to regard these trials or experiences not as failures or as causes of discouragement, but simply as opportunities to prove that "the prince of this world" can come and find nothing in us, then shall we know that we are doing what we as Christian Scientists have undertaken to do, namely, to overcome sin, disease, and death. Every time we break and prove unreal one of these asserted laws which today hold suffering humanity in bondage, by that much do we help to set ourselves and our brothers free. The more opportunities we have of proving this, or rather the more conscious we are that divine Love is omnipresent and omnipotent, the more fearless we become, thus proving, as the apostle John wrote, that "perfect love casteth out fear."

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