Article October 11, 1924 Issue

Our Measure of Faith

SAMUEL FREDERICK SWANTEES

In a state prison where Christian Science services had been held and some of the inmates had become acquainted with the precepts of this Science, one of the prisoners who had become a student of it became very ill. In his extremity he sent a note by one of the guards to another prisoner, a fellow-student of Christian Science, telling him of his suffering, giving the name of what he believed the disease to be, and asking his friend to help him by knowing the truth for him. The person to whom this note was sent had been a student of Christian Science for only a short time, having become acquainted with its teaching while in prison; but he already knew that Christian Science was something that could be put into practice. He had been told that Christian Science proves God to be "a very present help in trouble; so that any one at any time, for any human need whatsoever, could apply this Science and receive help. He did not know the meaning of "treatment," nor what a Christian Science treatment included; but he nevertheless resolved to use the little understanding of Truth he had. So he took the note his friend had sent him, and wrote just below the name of the disease: "I can find nothing like the disease you mention in the record of creation in the Bible. God never made it." The patient, receiving this reply, pondered the words, especially the sentence, "God never made it;" and in a little while rejoiced to find himself well.

This incident may serve to answer an important question, namely, How much faith must I have in God or in Christian Science? You must have faith enough to use it and live it,— faith enough to apply the truth about God and man that Christian Science has brought to your attention. As Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 174): "Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised." There is nothing difficult about this demand; but the fact that we must have enough faith in Christian Science to use it constantly does imply persistence, which is always a necessity if one wishes to succeed.

If we were teaching a child arithmetic,—say, for instance, the multiplication tables,—how much faith would we expect the pupil to have in the tables we had taught him? Faith enough to use them. If the child persists in using these tables year after year, thus constantly applying the law of numbers to any arithmetical problem which may arise, he will soon reach the point where he realizes that this law is absolutely reliable and that if properly applied the results will always be correct and those he should have. All doubt and fear as to the possibility of the law of numbers failing to operate in some instances would disappear. Thus he would never fail to have the proper amount of faith in the use of numbers, and he would never fail to apply the law of numbers wherever necessary.

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