Article June 30, 1923 Issue

Stability

WILLIAM KENNETH PRIMROSE

In the affairs of nations it is easy to observe how some vast scheme, involving huge expenditure and an enormous amount of labor and administrative machinery, may be very easily started; but if the scheme be founded on an economic fallacy, the whole structure will be worthless, and some day will cease to be, or require to be rebuilt. How many, lost in admiration of some such structure, consider the foundation on which the structure rests, remembering that it is the most important part of all? When standing at some crossroads, if one were to take and follow the wrong way he would never reach his destination, however long he went on walking. In the Bible we read: "But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ... Every man's work shall be made manifest."

The most wonderful example of direct, simple teaching and enduring foundational work is to be found in the inspired ministry of our Master. To mortal sense the task confronting him was stupendous. He stood alone in the world; and few at first understood his mission and lifepurpose. Yet he founded Christianity. In the seventh chapter of Luke we read of him as saying, in reply to those sent to him by John the Baptist, "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." Later in his ministry, when answering some pertinent, deep, searching question, we find him illustrating his reply by healing a case of sin or disease, or adding point to his answer by some simple reference to natural growth and beauty, as when he spoke of "the lilies of the field;" or briefly telling some short story, as for instance that about "a certain creditor which had two debtors." And so, because of their firm foundation, their simplicity and directness, his teachings are with us to-day, as demonstrable as they were nineteen hundred years ago.

The story of Mrs. Eddy's sudden restoration to health from the effect of injuries sustained in an accident, which the physician attending her said would probably prove fatal, is told by her in her work "Retrospection and Introspection." For three years thereafter she withdrew from society and studied the Bible, firmly convinced that the explanation of the Principle of divine healing, whereby she had been restored to health, was to be found in the Bible, as nowhere else. The result of her search and the complete statement of the teachings of Christian Science contained in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Thus, in the fullness of time, through her unselfed life-work, the spiritual significance of the Scriptures and the teachings of Christ Jesus have been explained to mankind in Christian Science.

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