Article January 15, 1921 Issue

"Who did hinder you?"

LAURA LOUISE GALSWORTHY

Every student of Christian Science facing the question, "Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" when that question is subjected to the searchlight of Truth must certainly give it pause and proceed to an honest if somewhat discomforting examination of the motives and desires that seemingly animate him before a true solution of the question can be gained. The first attempt of mortal mind is ever to excuse and justify itself and so gain time to whisper its insinuations and suggestions, hoping thereby to establish some sense of the reality of its claims before the truth expels and annihilates its flimsy pretensions.

Here, however, let us pause to consider the wonderful lessons taught by our Master, Jesus the Christ, in the narratives given us in the Bible. First, in the healing of the man with the withered hand, second, the healing of the man sick of the palsy, and third, of the man born blind; in these three instances we find the healings were all prefaced with a demand for obedience. This demand was a positive command to each to obey the divine principle of being, and to rise to recognize the pure spiritual reflection as God's idea. With the definite demands for obedience uttered in the words, "Stretch forth thy hand," "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," and "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam," our Master swept away any counterfeit laws attempting to fetter a man's freedom, or lying arguments seeming to hold him in bondage, and called forth the recognition of the Christ-idea in its perfection and wholeness, and even a glimpse of this idea healed the sick.

Was it not the instant obedience and selfless loyalty to Principle that gave Jesus this great power and never failed to express complete harmony? Do we as followers of this wonderful Christ-science, when we feel in need of healing, readily and whole-heartedly obey the demand for right thinking, instantly yielding up thoughts it may be of jealousy, possession, love of ease, irritability, self-pity, self-righteousness, thereby making way for the pure healing that glorifies God, or do we sit back satisfied for the time with ease in the senses, instead of gaining from the experience fresh inspiration for greater endeavors? Just here we need to watch that we do not accept our healing with mental reservations, but only with measureless gratitude. How often we read that "Jesus withdrew himself," and the more we study the words and works of our Master, the more we realize that the withdrawal was ever to gain a closer communion with the Father and thus enable him to return with added power and grace to overcome and eliminate the manifold temptations of the carnal mind. How often do we voluntarily seek in prayer this close communion with our Father-Mother God, that it may enable us to realize more of the truth and so be better able to meet our brothers' need?

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