Article September 19, 1925 Issue

Steps

EMILY MORGAN

One of the first steps the beginner in Christian Science takes is to gain a new and better idea of God, thus replacing the old concept of God as the sender of sickness, sorrow, punishment, poverty, and death. When commissioning Moses to perform the great work of leading the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, God revealed Himself as the "I AM." The potency of this revelation destroyed Moses' fear of the shackles of Egyptian slavery, and led the children of Israel safely through the Red Sea, supplied them with manna in the wilderness, enabled them to obtain water from the rock, conquered all their enemies, and brought them ultimately into the promised land.

A yet larger vision of God comes to the student of Christian Science, who, as he glimpses the wonder which this Science reveals of God as divine Mind, begins to cognize something of his own spirituality. The material senses begin to lose their seeming power as he realizes that man is the reflection of the great "I AM," and sees that his real self can know and understand something of the infinite glory of the one divine Mind. As in the case of the Israelites, this vision brings deliverance from the fetters of materiality, disease is healed, and the student experiences the spiritual enlightenment which raises him above the material senses and brings him unscathed through many dangers and temptations.

But the warfare of the children of Israel was not over when they reached Canaan: there were many enemies without to be conquered, and there was the great enemy of idolatry which attacked them from within to be overcome. So it is with the Christian Scientist. Our Leader warns us in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in these words (p. 564): "The serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea." The serpent— the so-called carnal mind—begins to attack apparently from without, difficulties, trials, and troubles presenting themselves; and from within comes the subtle temptation to be afraid of the carnal mind and its seeming power, even while asserting that there is only one Mind. Mrs. Eddy, with that wisdom which lays bare the error of the centuries, tells us that "the supposed existence of more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry" (ibid., p. 470). The belief in this error, which the children of Israel instead of destroying allowed to grow and become powerful in their thought, eventually led them again into bondage. The Christian Scientist must watch carefully so as to avoid falling into the same error. To fear any experience, trouble, or trial, to doubt or mistrust any issue, is to acknowledge the existence of another mind, and is idolatry.

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