Editorial May 20, 1922 Issue

The Only Safe Place

Ella W. Hoag

One of the problems which seems most frequently to confront the traveler on his way heavenward is that of dividing between truth and error. Again and again we hear the question asked, How can I tell which is truth and which is error? Now, while there are many right ways of answering this question, which would be enlightening, they all point to the same general conclusion,—that when one knows the truth, the error may be readily recognized and avoided. That is, acquaintance with Truth will furnish the light which dispels the darkness of false belief. The Christian Scientist knows, however, that the complete attaining of this exalted understanding can only be accomplished through taking each step in obedience to the method which God has given in Christian Science. In such obedience one will gain, through experience, the ability to see divine Mind's control in each situation.

Very frequently one must remind himself of an important step in his progress; namely, that he must be willing to recognize and relinquish the claims of error which truth exposes. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 252), Mrs. Eddy writes, "A knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error." This statement of our Leader does not in any way controvert her teaching that it is Truth alone which uncovers error, but it does reemphasize the necessity of dealing with the errors thus uncovered; for unless their claims are seen, one will be blinded by them, and will not be able to proceed with the truth to their destruction.

One claim of error which sometimes deceives the earnest student, because he may not be aware of it, is that error tries to say it has an opposite. Because all there is to error is its supposititious, lying claim of an opposite to God, infinite good, the lie also would say, I have an opposite which is good. Now this must be recognized by the student of Christian Science, if he is not to be deceived by it. For example, an earnest Christian Scientist has been clinging to the truth that he, as God's child, is absolutely dependent on his Father, God, for all things; that he has no power to be or to do anything apart from his creator; that all the good he ever has or ever will express has been that which God has caused him to reflect. Working and praying along these lines he wakes up to see that he, as a mortal, has perhaps been claiming as his own the good he has known or has expressed,—that he has not given God the glory. In the light of Truth, which Christian Science has revealed to him, he sees how false, how wrong, this has been, and he cries out to be delivered from this wretched claim of self-exaltation.

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