Article September 7, 1929 Issue

"Let them alone"

EVE CRAIN

Could anything be more satisfying, when we get our first glimpse of the perfect God and His perfect man, than to have our entire family share the vision, and to see all of our loved ones going forward with us! To be able to talk about our new-found treasure, and to feel the sympathetic and tender interest of those with whom we spend most of our waking hours, would be gratifying indeed; but it seldom occurs that way, and after traveling on alone we see that each step has to be one of individual demonstration.

How well our dear Leader, Mrs. Eddy, knew that this necessity might seem a stumblingblock on our journey, unless we should free ourselves from the human sense of love, and make this experience a stepping-stone to lift us above the desire to pull someone along with us! In an inspiring allegory in "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy presents Christ as a Stranger eager to lead those who would give up their earth-weights and follow him to the throne of glory. Of those who stayed behind she writes (p. 327), "Obstinately holding themselves back, and sore-footed, they fall behind and lose sight of their guide; when, stumbling and grumbling, and fighting each other, they plunge headlong over the jagged rocks." And in the next paragraph she continues: "Then he who has no baggage goes back and kindly binds up their wounds, wipes away the blood stains, and would help them on; but suddenly the Stranger shouts, 'Let them alone; they must learn from the things they suffer. Make thine own way; and if thou strayest, listen for the mountain-horn, and it will call thee back to the path that goeth upward.' " "Let them alone"! Yes, that is what we must all learn sooner or later, to leave them alone with God, knowing that they can never get out of the focal distance of divine Love; and when we leave them gratefully, joyously, in the care of our Father-Mother, we at that moment have laid down one of our biggest earth-weights. How free we feel; how much faster we can go, and all because we are obeying the Golden Rule!

Perhaps there was a time when a dear one was trying to tell us about the glories of Christian Science, and we were obstinately holding back. To one who is now a student of this precious truth someone once gave the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. Upon opening it casually near the last chapter, and finding something she could neither understand nor accept, she relegated the book to a high shelf, and there it remained for seven years. During this time she suffered "many things of many physicians;" and at last, when under a sentence of death within two weeks, she desperately cried out to God to save her. A visitor came and told such a beautiful story of his healing through Christian Science that she climbed to the top shelf, dusted the precious book, and began humbly to read—this time at the beginning. Through patient, earnest study, and with the help of a loving practitioner, she was restored to a happy, useful life.

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