Editorial May 12, 1917 Issue

Rules and Their Application

Annie M. Knott

Beginners in the study of Christian Science often ask if they cannot have definite rules given them for working out the problems which they meet in their daily experience. To this it may be answered that these rules are to be found throughout the Scriptures and also in our Leader's writings, but a serious mistake is made when they are regarded in any wise as formulas which can be used without a clear understanding of their relation to divine Principle and spiritual law.

On page 261 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy bids us "look away from the body into Truth and Love,"to which she adds the following clearly expressed rule, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." This rule lacks nothing in the way of definiteness; in fact, it may be compared in its exactness to mathematical statements, which are unvarying in their operation when applied with understanding. The passage quoted leaves no room for uncertainty. It does not say that we may bring the good and the true into our experience, but that we shall do so to the extent that we give them first place in our consciousness. If we seem to experience a large measure of discord, it only goes to show how much room we have made for it in our thoughts, and how earnest must be our effort to displace it in order that the good and the true may hold sway.

This particular rule does not tell us that we shall be able to bring harmony to all around us by our obedience to its requirement, but it most definitely states that in our own experience at least the good realized will be in proportion to our faithfulness. If the problem which most concerns us is the overcoming of physical inharmony, we are bidden to "look away from the body into Truth and Love;" then the rule broadens, as it were, and includes other phases of human experience, and so we are bidden to "hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true." There is not any one on earth today who would not be helped by recalling this rule of divine Science and striving to put it into practice. The temptation comes to every one of us many times a day to do the opposite of this,—to think of the bad and the untrue, which have no permanence in spite of all that mortal mind would say to the contrary; but here is given us the opportunity to grow strong by holding thought steadfastly to that which represents God,—His creation and His government.

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