Article January 4, 1919 Issue

The True Commander

LOUIS A. GREGORY

Soldiers were holding Christian Science services at an army camp. The sincerity and understanding they manifested made the service very inspiring. In reading the scientific interpretation of the Lord's Prayer from the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the sentence on page 17, "God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death," was read with such conviction, such earnest assurance, that it was apparent at once that the statement was one of unusual significance to the Reader. It is a statement of importance to every one, but its special application to the experience of the soldier is apparent.

Since the soldier must trust implicitly in his leader, the ability of the leader is a matter of first importance. The best of human leadership is fallible, and the greater the imperfection of the one in authority the more of hardship is involved for the soldier. The only refuge from such evil chances lies in the understanding that God's leadership is perfect, yet withal so practical that every one may recognize it, follow it, and be blessed by it in daily activity. All this is stated frequently and emphatically in the Bible, and those passages which state it most clearly, as the twenty-third psalm, the ninety-first psalm, and the Lord's Prayer, are the best known and most loved by students of Christian Science.

Military organization may seem to be the inexorable rule of human will, leading oftentimes to sin, sickness, and death; but many soldiers have proved, through knowledge of God as Principle, as infinite power, that God's will is supreme, and leads man out of all evil. One soldier phrased this truth in the words, "God is our Commander in Chief," indicating that the soldier in rendering obedience to military authority may also render to God the fidelity to good which Christianity requires. He does this by correcting in his thought and life the mistaken belief that evil possesses authority or power, with the recognition and proof that God is infinite good as well as all-power, and man, His reflection, is controlled solely by good.

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