Article November 3, 1928 Issue

Testing Times

WARREN BURTON WIMPEY

WHEN an engineer graduates from college, he looks forward with interest and expectation to the day when he will have problems to which he can apply the knowledge he has gained. He knows that when he begins to construct bridges, build railroads, or lay highways, he will be confronted with difficulties which from time to time will prove to be tests of his understanding of the fundamental rules governing engineering. This is also true of the musician, the accountant, or any other professional worker whose success depends on the application of fixed rules. To them, trials or problems are but part of the daily work, and are looked upon as opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of the work at hand and to serve as stepping-stones to greater achievement.

As students of Christian Science, we too find that there are testing times awaiting us; but do we always accept them with the same mental attitude as the engineer, the musician, or the accountant? Do we look upon these tests as opportunities to demonstrate our understanding, sincerity, and faith? Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives students sound warning regarding these testing times when she writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 39), "We must have trials and self-denials, as well as joys and victories, until all error is destroyed." And on page 22 she says, "Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious effort."

When one becomes conscious of the fact that there exists in Christian Science a panacea for all seeming discord and inharmony, one has visions of performing so-called miracles; but it soon becomes evident that many lessons are to be learned, innumerable wrong thoughts corrected, and, finally, tests, in which to demonstrate just how much actual understanding has been assimilated. Christian Science deals with an infinite subject—the knowledge of God—which cannot at once be grasped in its entirety, but requires faithful study, consecration, and, above all, demonstration. The solution of problems is in fact one of the human footsteps leading to ultimate perfection. They are as the "precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little," of which Isaiah writes; they constitute the "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear," spoken of by the Master.

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