Editorial January 24, 1920 Issue

The One Way

Ella W. Hoag

Two ways appear to present themselves to men in the walk through life. There is the straight and narrow way of divine Principle, demanding obedience to right, and there is the so-called broad and easy one wherein it is believed one may walk with comfort and pleasure, without care and without concern. Christians have for centuries proclaimed aloud the virtue of the first and the wrong of the second; but because of a lack of understanding of the nature of both, the teachings of the schools have fallen far short of definite instruction as to the manner of or the reasons for seeking the one or avoiding the other. While it is conceded by all that Jesus walked in the narrow way and declared that all who would live in obedience to God and so obtain heaven must follow him, human thought in its consent to an admixture of good and evil has lazily believed that the two paths could be in some way conjoined. Christian Science, however, shows conclusively that they can never really touch each other at any point. Being entirely different in purpose and in destination as well as in manner of progress, they diverge from the outset.

In Science and Health (p. 242) we read: "There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses." This defines the one perfect way so simply, so clearly, that none need ever again question its nature or how to find it. While Christian Scientists undoubtedly accept the truth of this definition, there still remains the necessity of proving their understanding of it by walking in this way. When one is quite convinced that this is indeed the path to heaven, it would seem the simplest thing imaginable to choose it always and always to walk in it.

To the human sense this, however, seems difficult, since the rule thus stated not only demands the acceptance of and obedience to the demands of divine Principle, but also involves the consequent recognition and rejection of all the claims of materiality. Because of this it appears to take time to learn to remain steadfastly in the path of righteousness. Many a side trip is made into the bypaths of what is denominated the broad and pleasant road—but this way, it should always be remembered, inevitably leads to destruction. It goes without saying, that it is only as divine Principle is understood and so seen as the alone desirable that there will be a sufficient earnestness of purpose to hold one ever to the exact, undeviating, but nevertheless all-loving way of Principle.

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