Article November 24, 1923 Issue

"Wherefore didst thou doubt?"

ELIZABETH CHALLIS ADAMS

How many of us have had the experience, after patient waiting and working, of receiving certain victories from the heavenly Father for which we gave thanks at first, but which we soon began to look at critically, and before long came to doubt were victories from God at all, regarding them rather, perhaps, as steps in the wrong direction, which might involve us in difficulties! Possibly Peter felt thus when, after he had started to walk on the water toward the Master, the waves became boisterous. At first, there was doubtless a great sense of spirituality and grateful joy; but when the water grew rough, Peter very likely began to doubt the wisdom of his undertaking, ceased to be grateful, and began to sink. To Christ Jesus, who knew the heavenly Father's allness, it may have seemed strange that Peter's faith should waver; hence the rebuke, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

Why did Peter doubt? And why do we so often doubt under similar circumstances? Is it not because of our misunderstanding of God? And is not the root of the trouble pointed out by Mrs. Eddy in the short sentence in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 551), "Darkness and doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on materiality"? If Peter had been thinking of God as Spirit, and of all reality as God's spiritual creation, he could not have doubted that his own obedience would be matched by divine maintenance and support; but, instead, he looked at the rising waves and forgot temporarily that the divine Mind is the only substance, the only power, and is available to all. In other words, he did not continue to "utilize the moral might of Mind," as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 455), "in order to walk over the waves of error." It is these waves of error which seem to rise up sometimes after a much prized victory and threaten to rob us of what we have gained, namely, of our fresh proof of God's goodness, of our resultant peace and joy and gratitude.

Our great Teacher said, "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." Mrs. Eddy has made it clear that no one can be free from doubt until some understanding has been gained of God as omnipresent, omnipotent Spirit. "If we pray to God as a corporeal person," she has written on page 13 of the Christian Science textbook, "this will prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and fears which attend such a belief, and so we cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infinite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible." If we remember, then, that "infinite, incorporeal Love" is the only giver of good, and that every victory we have won or can win is the reflection of this infinite Love, which can never be taken from us or obscured, we shall be able through all tests to remain faithful, free from doubt, and filled with gratitude and joy.

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