Article May 24, 1919 Issue

"The secret place"

LILLIE I. SHEETS

In the ninety-first psalm we find this assurance respecting the one who loves God: "Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him." This promise was quoted to the writer by a Christian Science practitioner who was lovingly trying to lift her patient's thought above the belief of materiality into the realm of Mind. The practitioner went on to say, "Now you have set your love on God, therefore He will deliver you." I could not, however, see how anyone could know that I had set my love on God, when I was not sure of it myself. How was I to know whether or not I loved God? Having voiced this to the practitioner, she lovingly told me to study more carefully the ninety-first psalm, and I did so earnestly and sincerely, desiring more light.

Our dear Leader, Mrs. Eddy, says, "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds" (Science and Health, p. 1). I did want to love God with all my heart, but how was I to do it? Every time I sat down to read I was besieged with doubt and uncertainty. I would get no farther than the first verse, for I found that the promises were to him that dwelleth "in the secret place of the most High." Did I dwell in the secret place of the "most High"? How could I be sure? I knew that to dwell meant to abide, to live there continually. I also knew that this "secret place" of shelter was in divine Mind.

Finally, on sitting down one evening to read and study this psalm as usual, I glanced at the first verse of the ninetieth psalm, which reads, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations," and what a revelation it was! I at once saw that God's man was always in Mind, for did not Paul say, "In him we live, and move, and have our being"? I also saw that, whether I fully realized it or not, as God's idea I was there, and that because I was there I did love God, for God is Love, and man is His image and likeness. Such a sense of peace and happiness and security as came with this unfolding of spiritual truth! I was indeed on the mountain top, and while I have many times had to descend to the valley as did Moses, yet this clear glimpse of the reality of the divine Mind and its creation has always been a wonderful help, a shining light to lead me on and up.

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