Article May 14, 1921 Issue

Responsibility

SIR HENRY JAPP

"To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings," is how Mrs. Eddy opens the Preface to the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." To how many receptive hearts have these inspired words not been as a cup of cold water in a dry and weary land, that land of mortal mind, where the burden of responsibility seems more than can be borne? This mortal burden may assume many forms for different individuals, ranging from that of the schoolboy's responsibility for the daily task or the approaching examinations, to that of the captain of industry with his responsibility for financing and operating a great industrial plant; or as depicted in the Bible, from the cares of Martha "cumbered about much serving," to the widow of Zarephath, who answered the prophet's request for a morsel of bread, "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die."

No matter how great the seeming burden or how difficult the task, these opening words by Mrs. Eddy, if spiritually understood and scientifically applied, will solve the problem, and this can be proved to-day, as it was centuries ago. What a wonderful promise these words convey of all that is within the covers of Science and Health, and of the perfect healing which results from the unfoldment of divine Science to the human consciousness. As one reads the Christian Science textbook for the first time with a receptive heart, the immediate effect is to increase one's faith in God, to make one feel that an ever present helper is at hand to relieve one of the crushing sense of responsibility of daily life. But the young student finds that a new responsibility arises; for as the irresistible conviction that Christian Science is the absolute truth about God, man, and the universe, grips the human thought, one is immediately compelled to take an honest stand before the world for Truth, for Christian Science.

To the beginner in Christian Science it seems easy, so far as he himself is concerned, to take this important step, involving in the first instance the giving up of material medicine and looking to God only as the great Physician. It may be, however, that although the student is young in his study of Science he is nevertheless the head of a family of young children. Then the question arises, and one's relatives are not slow to put it plainly: "What! are you going to sacrifice your children to this new fad you have taken up? Are you going to deprive them of medical aid when they are sick?" That is a serious question: Is the student of Christian Science going to sacrifice his children on the altar of Christian Science? Will he do as Abraham made ready to do with his beloved and only son Isaac? Now it is just here that the student, in debating this matter with himself, finds an answer to his problem; for a study of this incident in Abraham's life is most helpful. It will be remembered that Abraham had given up the gods of his father's people and had through his purity of thought discerned that God was not a graven image, neither was He the sun, nor the moon, but infinite, invisible Mind.

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