Article April 5, 1919 Issue

Something for a Beginner

LOUISE KNIGHT WHEATLEY

It is sometimes a matter of considerable surprise to the one just turning to Christian Science for help to discover that instead of being encouraged to talk to the practitioner about himself and his troubles the practitioner seems much more interested in talking to him about God. Now talking about God, he readily admits, is, of course, all right on Sundays and all other suitable occasions, but he cannot exactly see how it can have any particular bearing on the subject in hand. In fact, when he has left his business, and walked many blocks, and given up much valuable time for the particular purpose of talking about his rheumatism, for instance, it seems just a little disconcerting to find the subject practically tabooed.

His would-be helper allows him to explain his difficulties in a general way, but when he begins to tell how long he has had it, and what the last doctor said about it, and how it feels, and how the afflicted member looks, and how the ailment keeps him awake nights, and how his grandfather had it, he suddenly discovers that the conversation has somehow been gently turned in another direction. They are going to talk about God, it seems, whether he likes it or not; and yet as he listens, probably too polite to say what he really thinks, he does find himself, after all, getting somewhat interested in what he is being told about a God who is Love, who never wants His children to be sick or unhappy, and of man as God's dear child, never separated for an instant from the Father's tender care. It is all in the Bible, of course,—nothing really new about it; but as he wends his way back to his office, the only new and surprising thing about the whole proceeding is that he suddenly begins to feel better.

If there are any who are, perhaps, still puzzling themselves to understand what may be termed in popular parlance "the connection," the following illustration may be found helpful. Suppose a man were in a very dark cave, so dark that he could not see his hand before his face; and suppose, as he stood there, a voice at his side should say: "Right here in this cave are riches beyond your fondest dreams, wealth so fabulous that no human language could ever make you comprehend it. All is yours. You have only to step forward and take it. Now what will you have first?" As the man stands there irresolute in the darkness, hearing the voice, but seeing no one, would not his natural reply be, "Well, my friend, I hear what you say, and I am ready to believe it. But if all this is really here, and I am ever to get it, I think the thing I must have first of all is a little more light."

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