Abiding

ELLA W. HOAG

IF associated with good, the word "abiding" opens vistas of peace and contentment. Whether we think of good itself as abiding or of our abiding in good, a sense of sweet calm and comfort invariably unfolds, which stills the clamor and discontent of human belief. For thousands of years men have turned with a sense of security and hope to the song of the Psalmist, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

Until Christian Science was revealed, however, men did not understand the full meaning of either the dwelling or the abiding to which the Psalmist refers. Not until the truth of God's omnipresence as infinite divine Mind, infinite good, was proclaimed in Mrs. Eddy's teachings did it become plain to mankind that to dwell "in the secret place of the most High" means that constant communion with God which enables one to prove himself to be the reflection of perfect intelligence. To gain even a glimpse of this wonderful truth is indeed to learn something of the possibility of abiding in God's secret place.

One does not need to be told that a secret place is one which is hidden away from all danger and can be found only by those who have the open-sesame to its location. To abide, then, in the secret place of divine Mind, which is infinitely good, is indeed to dwell under that "shadow of the Almighty," which shuts out all possibility of being found by the evil beliefs of a suppositional opposite. Thus protected, one can never be reached by harm of any name or nature.

To the one instructed by Christian Science the marvelous good which this true sense of abiding unfolds, proves to be indeed multiform in scope. Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." God's secret place, therefore, not only insures protection from all evil, but it is the vantage ground from which all good must be demonstrated. Only, however, through steadfast, patient abiding is this to be won. There must be not only the obedient, willing, unresistant abiding in Christ, Truth, but there must always be the understanding, the consciousness, that divine thoughts are actively abiding in us.

Too often the Christian Scientist rests in the one without using the other, or uses the one without abiding in the other. In other words, he either abides in the thought that God is going to do it all, or else that all responsibility rests with him in keeping divine thoughts active in his consciousness, while both are eminently necessary.

In "Unity of Good" (p. 40) Mrs. Eddy has written: "Life is God, and God is good. Hence Life abides in man, if man abides in good, if he lives in God, who holds Life by a spiritual and not by a material sense of being." Herein our beloved leader has presented the ultimate of all abiding. To abide in good, consciously to live in God, must inevitably mean that right activity of divine Truth which keeps the Christian Scientist aware that he abides and abounds in the reflection of all divine qualities. We do not always realize how simple or how mighty true abiding is. When allowing thought to wander in the mazes of materiality, when permitting our mental operations to drift undirected by the guiding volition of divine Principle, we are shutting ourselves out from the quiet peacefulness which always results from steadfastly staying with thoughts of good.

Because of such aimless, mistaken mental wanderings we often find ourselves in quagmires of disturbance and despondency. Then the truth of abiding comes to us with all its helpful revelations. For how can divine Mind ever fail to be abiding with all its ideas, since it is infinite, omnipresent, all! How instantaneously, then, may we turn to the understanding of the omnipresent truth that though we make our bed in hell, still Mind is there; though we fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, even there shall the thoughts of divine Mind guide and sustain us.

Our Leader shows us the wisdom of avoiding all false human tendencies by abiding in Christ, Truth, when she writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 6), "To abide in our unselfed better self is to be done forever with the sins of the flesh, the wrongs of human life, the tempter and temptation, the smile and deceit of damnation." What Christian Scientist, then, will not be wise enough to abide continually in the secret place of divine Mind? Here he may ever experience the heavenly unfolding of that infinite good which is the constant, activity of divine Life, Truth, and Love, which eternally and omnipresently abide.

ELLA W. HOAG

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit