Editorial September 29, 1923 Issue

No Uncertainty

Albert F. Gilmore

Every student of the teachings of Christ Jesus is deeply impressed with his profound assurance of the presence of God, the Father, and the availability of His power in meeting the needs of mankind. In none of the Nazarene's teachings is there less than complete, final, and unqualified certainty of God's infinite goodness and ever-presence. Mrs. Eddy has made clear that no quality is more necessary than this in the successful demonstration of Truth over error; and consequently none is more worthy of diligent cultivation. To know, to be sure of God's allness and goodness, of His all power and perfect love, is to be lifted above the realm of doubt; it is to be removed from the possibility of entertaining even for an instant the least trace of uncertainty; it is to overcome all the claims of error, the ostentatious and the subtle alike.

"Uncertain ways unsafest are," declared Sir John Denham in "Cooper's Hill." The Christian Scientist conversely demonstrates the safety of certainty. The public is often deeply impressed by the quality of thought manifested by Christian Scientists in their perfect certainty as to their position. Why should they not be certain? Have there not been revealed to them the facts of being, the truth about God and man, in a way to preclude the possibility of doubt and uncertainty? Moreover, Christian Scientists do not stand upon a platform of speculation, of mere theory and hypothesis; but rather they rest in the assurance of proved propositions, of certain and definite results obtained through the application of Christian Science to every problem that arises in the course of human experience. Where proof is, doubt has no abiding place; where certainty is established, uncertainty has no standing.

Mrs. Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 108), says of the proof she established as to the truth of her revelation: "My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty and the lesser demonstration to prove the greater, as the product of three multiplied by three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions,—not a fraction more, not a unit less." Is there not a valuable lesson for every student of Christian Science in the method our Leader here hints at? Sometimes it seems discouragement and despair would creep in because one is unable to complete the proof at once, to fulfill all the demands of Spirit, manifesting man in all the fullness of his spiritual perfection. To be sure, there is no law of God forbidding the fullest realization of man's perfect state of selfhood here, now, immediately. Yet human experience, even that of the more spiritually-minded, indicates that the gaining of the Mind of Christ and the consequent putting off of the old man does not appear to be an instantaneous process.

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