Editorial April 28, 1917 Issue

Watching a Hole in the Ground

William D. McCrackan

A Hunting dog can be trained to watch a hole in the ground until called away by his master. He may spend hours at a particular hole and in the mean time be oblivious of all that goes on about him. All sorts of tempting indications of the presence of many kinds of feathered or four-footed game may try to lure him from his watch, but he notices nothing except the one particular hole to which he has been assigned. If nothing comes out of that hole, he will secure nothing at all. This educated trait of our friend the dog, when under the influence of human domination, may teach a lesson to humanity itself.

Many a man is mentally watching a hole in the ground, and if nothing issues from it he is destined to be grievously disappointed. He falls under the supposed spell of limitation and is oblivious of the unlimited opportunities which are all around him. Such a one comes to the Christian Science practitioner and laments his lack of success. In his own thought he has narrowed down God's infinite resources to a single hole in the ground. He is engaged in a certain business, trained to a certain profession, or derives his income from a certain investment. If this one avenue should fail, he believes he has lost everything, because he imagines that God is even as helpless and petty as himself. On page 255 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy has written: "Mortal man has made a covenant with his eyes to belittle Deity with human conceptions. In league with material sense, mortals take limited views of all things."

But what a genuine relief comes to this small-minded human being when Christian Science teaches him the boundless abundance of the Principle governing the universe, the unstinting generosity of a loving Father-Mother, the never ending activity of Life eternal, the inexhaustible reservoir of health and happiness complete. This fearful one should know that God has millions of ways of supplying him with everything that he needs, that strictly and scientifically speaking every right desire is already fulfilled. Does he yearn for substance, strength, ability, talent, discernment, beauty, wisdom, love? Then they are his already in reality. Does he envy in another some charm, some grace of speech or bearing, or the marks of intelligence, cleverness, quickness of decision, firmness of resolve? Let him forego his envy, for it strikes beside the mark. All good belongs now to man, who is the manifestation of the infinite source of being, and humanity becomes possessed of these divine qualities by claiming them from God, whose giving is boundless. We read on page 60 of Science and Health, "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul."

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