Article December 24, 1921 Issue

On Asking Advice

F. MAUD BROWN

Centuries before the Christian era, Jeremiah prophesied: "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." This prophecy is being fulfilled with the coming of Christian Science, a religion which teaches each one who turns to it how to find God for himself. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is the book in which Mrs. Eddy has given this new-old truth to the world, and this book makes it abundantly clear that we need no intermediary to lead us to God. The opening words of the Preface are, "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings," and in the next paragraph we read, "Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal."

Countless people who in time of distress have turned to this book for help and have honestly sought "the right apprehension of Him" have gained a new understanding of God, a spiritual awakening, and have found their troubles turned to joy. These same people are then faced with the problem of applying this truth to their everyday living, and by and by the temptation may come to them to fall back on other people's advice, to ask their help rather than to seek to be led by God. The suggestion may present itself that experienced Christian Scientists must know better than they what is right and so it would be best to take to them the problem which has arisen. At such a time the beginner does well to remember that Jeremiah declares "all" are to be taught of God, "from the least of them unto the greatest."

Whenever we ask some person's advice instead of turning to divine Principle for help it is because we look on the experiences which come to us as ends in themselves. We are so desperately anxious to make the right move in our business, to secure the right house to live in, or the work we feel ourselves best fitted for, that we do not realize that all these things, indeed the whole of our everyday life, is just a training ground in which we may attain the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus" of which Paul wrote. It does not matter much what one's income is, where one is living, or what one's work is, but it does matter supremely whether or not each one is endeavoring every day to draw nearer to God, to listen more obediently for His voice, and to strive more earnestly to do His will. Simply to do the so-called right thing because others tell you to do it leads nowhere. On the contrary, it is stagnation; for whenever we depend on people we shut out God's voice and to that extent bar the way to further progress. It is the motive that counts and when we honestly and whole-heartedly desire to do right then we shall be led aright.

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