Editorial June 24, 1922 Issue

"Practice not profession"

Ella W. Hoag

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy we read (p. 15), "Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence." Now, Christian Science is the way of life. It is God's revelation to man, given that mankind may be delivered from all belief in evil. It is Science, which is to be demonstrated; and all the theoretical knowledge of it in the world will never do anything for one unless he puts it into practice. A person might study textbooks on mathematics from cover to cover until he had every rule at his tongue's end, but unless he obeyed the rules,—unless he put them into daily and hourly practice by doing his examples according to them,—he would never become a mathematician; neither would he ever be able to solve any problem according to those rules.

It is practice that brings results. Take another familiar illustration: Suppose a man were to study a manual on swimming until perfectly familiar with every theory in regard to its proper practice. Suppose he even went so far on dry land as to put each muscle and member into the necessary activity to prove himself master of the art of swimming. What possible use would it be to him if, when he found himself in the water, he failed to use the rules and activity he had learned on dry land? Sink he would, inevitably, unless he put forth the effort to practice the theory he had been so long studying.

This is true along every line of endeavor. The learning of the rules will be of value only to the one who puts them into use,—who practices what they teach him; and the practice must be constant if there is to be advancement. Therefore, when Christian Science is approached, the student should recognize very clearly, as Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 85), that "books and teaching are but a ladder let down from the heaven of Truth and Love." What possible good would the ladder be to one who did not climb it? Then, if one is ever to become a real Christian Scientist, two points which must be fully seen and accepted are that Christian Science is demonstrable, and that it must be demonstrated in order to be of use to any one. Its rules must be practiced if their inspiration is to be of practical benefit to the student of them. An unused talent will gradually become weaker until it will finally disappear. There is, therefore, no place to stop working,—no point where mental activity can cease in the practice of the rules of divine Science,—if the student of Christian Science is to progress in his demonstration of its rules.

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