Article November 5, 1921 Issue

"According to your faith"

ANNA M. CHATILLON

Very helpful thoughts have been received through the study of the beautiful narrative of the healing of the centurion's servant as found in the eighth chapter of Matthew. The centurion's attitude in his humble petition for help for his servant and his absolute faith in Jesus' ability to heal this servant caused Jesus to marvel, and he said to the centurion, "Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." Now, Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of believing may be found on page 582 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and reads thus: "Believing. Firmness and constancy; not a faltering nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth." It may be safe to assume that this centurion had a clear perception of spiritual Truth, for the narrative ends thus: "And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour."

May we not learn from this that when we seem to be in a world of turmoil, hatred, sickness, and sorrow, that our perception of spiritual Truth is seemingly lacking, or obscured, and we have allowed its supposed opposite, matter or error, a place as reality? And how prone the human mind is to point out some one of its own objects as the cause of trouble or inharmony, seeing as reality its own false belief or concept of the true idea, which never is in matter, but is spiritual and therefore must be spiritually discerned. But let us not make the mistake of supposing that merely saying "You are not sick," or, "You are not hungry, or cold, or alone," and then shutting our door of kindly hospitality, helpfulness, and charity, is doing our duty. Jesus spoke as "one having authority," or, in terms of the dictionary, "with power or right to act or command," and this authority was manifested in results: Life appeared where death seemed to be; supply was plentiful where lack had made its claim, and his loving consideration for his grieved mother was shown when he gave her his beloved disciple as a son.

If we have not attained a clear, spiritual perception which enables us to replace the false seeming situation with the truth of being, which is harmony, the meaning of which excludes all possibility of lack of anything good, we must do what at the moment answers to our highest sense of right and good in accordance with the Golden Rule. Said the beloved disciple: "But whose hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion form him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little childeren, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." To follow the example of the ostrich, which buries its head in the sand to avoid seeing what it believes to be approaching danger, is not overcoming. The result is rather as said Job, "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me."

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