Article April 20, 1918 Issue

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

E. MARY RAMSAY

On first becoming acquainted with Christian Science, most people who have been brought up in religious surroundings find that without intentional hypocrisy they have yet been accustomed to accept as true some statements to which they have given very little serious thought. Christian Science forces these people to examine their position, since it brings home to them the fact that nothing but a lack of faith or spiritual understanding prevents the Christian of to-day from performing acts of the same kind as those commonly called miracles, of which the Bible bears record. Having reached this point, we begin to examine the words of the Master with new-found carefulness.

Turning to the Beatitudes we read: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Examined in this closer way, we are bound to admit that this statement runs counter to all our experience. Push, initiative, resourcefulness, perseverance, and possibly honesty may enable a man to gain a high position in this world; but when was meekness found essential to success? Yet the words of him who is our great Wayshower are not to be regarded merely as religious aphorisms; they are positive statements of scientific truth, as absolute as the statement that three times three equal nine. It is plain, therefore, that the average man has not grasped what our Lord meant by the word translated "meekness." Nay, more, we find that most people are positively repelled by the word meekness. Every one admires courage, most all people respect truth, but meekness has few to worship at its shrine. For the majority of mankind, indeed, it hardly exists.

We read in the twelfth chapter of Numbers the following words: "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." In what did this meekness consist? Moses is undoubtedly one of the greatest figures of the Old Testament, and with the main outlines of his history we are all familiar. As the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, he received the highest education which the most learned court of the ancient world had to offer, and he undoubtedly made the most of his advantages; but when he was forty years of age, he had to flee the country for having killed an Egyptian who was illtreating an Israelite. It thus seemed as if his career was ended, and his chance of helping his oppressed fellow countrymen gone forever. Then followed the forty years during which he lived with Jethro and tended his flocks on the desert pastures. The Bible tells us nothing of the mental struggles through which Moses must have passed during those long and outwardly uneventful years, but we can imagine something of the warfare between the patriot's anguish and his faith in the future of his race, till in the fullness of time came the wonderful incident of the burning bush.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

True Service to Our Cause