Article November 14, 1931 Issue

The Availability of Christ

LESTER B. MC COUN

Hurriedly entering a railway passenger car just in time for the departure of the train, a woman whose general appearance and frightened look betokened mental excitement, seated herself beside one who she did not then know was a Christian Scientist. Presently she turned to him, saying her state of mind was such that she felt she must converse with somebody. She had received a disturbing message in a telegram summoning her to another city.

After listening patiently to her story, and correctly discerning the fine motives of the troubled one, the Christian Scientist tenderly and compassionately asked the woman if she was interested in any religion. The reply was that she had for over thirty years been an active worker in a wellknown Protestant denomination. The Christian Scientist then felt led to quote some of Christ Jesus' words; and as he responded to this spiritual leading, his thought became elevated to a clear and high sense of the power of divine Love. There also came to him the clear consciousness of that presence to which the Master referred when he said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." and the healing words and divine inspiration came freely. In a great measure the sense of human personality left the Christian Scientist, and instead thereof was the feeling of being a willing channel for the unobstructed reflection of the true nature and purpose of God.

When many of the words of Jesus had been cited, the woman turned to the Christian Scientist and said substantially, "I have taught all those sayings in Sunday school for many years, but until this moment I did not realize that they meant what they said." A remarkable transformation took place. The gleam of fear left her eyes, the drawn lines disappeared from her face, and there appeared upon it a look of heavenly peace and joy which words cannot adequately describe. And then she gently said to her companion, "And you must be a Christian Scientist."

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