Article February 25, 1928 Issue

"I go a fishing"

EDWARD D. ATTIX

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God," declared the Psalmist. Christian Scientists are being taught that this river is the spiritual stream of God's goodness, and that its present manifestations are, more particularly, the Bible, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, all of Mrs. Eddy's other writings, and the various channels or activities of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts — including the periodicals and the lectures. Our Leader was certainly divinely led to write the Manual of The Mother Church; and our individual wholehearted obedience to this Manual and to the rules therein laid down will keep this stream pure and undefiled for our own and for succeeding generations. And it can be kept pure in no other way.

Each individual has this choice. He can look for good in materiality, or he can look for God's eternal good within this pure spiritual stream. Like Peter, whether we know it or not, we all "go a fishing." And either we are fishing for things in matter or we are seeking spiritual realities. If we are searching for material wealth, power, health, or fame, we—like Peter—shall surely some day awaken, when morning comes and the Christ, Truth, appears, and we shall see that however much of matter and materiality we, during the night, may have thought we had accumulated, we have in reality caught nothing. For are we not told in Science and Health (p. 468), "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter"? We can get nothing real or worth while from materiality in any form.

We remember that Jesus, he who demonstrated the Christ so wonderfully, told the disciples to cast their net "on the right side." After seeing the fruitlessness of seeking materiality we, like them, are also glad to obey this same Christ, Truth, and to make our efforts "on the right side,"—the spiritual side,—with the "everlasting arms" beneath, and to acquire that spiritual reality which is promised us if we will but seek, ask, and open our hearts to the heavenly urge. This is the "Still small voice" which is behind us, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."

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