Article November 28, 1931 Issue

What Can I Do for You?

LINA PLUMER CLINGEN

In a testimony published recently in one of the Christian Science periodicals, a mother, after expressing gratitude for physical healing, told of the wonderful help Christian Science had been to her in caring for her children. She wrote of the protection it afforded against illness, and of its aid in overcoming faults of disposition. She closed her testimony by stating that the children had decided that when any strange child came into the neighborhood, they would say to themselves, What can I do for you?

The unformed thought hinted in the question of these children, scarcely more than a loving impulse, was gathered into the channel of one student's consciousness, and there unfolded, bringing healing and progress. Mrs. Eddy has written in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 506), "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear."

The first step in this unfoldment was the student's realization that each one in his heart can ask of every individual he meets, whether old friend or new, or a stranger, What can I do for you? In the presence of this thought of giving, which is a quality of Love, suggestions of envy, criticism, or any other expression of error, cannot abide. It is not always possible to help humanly those whom we meet, but in our own consciousness we can always replace with truth what may seem to us to be lacking in them. If the temptation presents itself to see someone as dishonest or unloving, or as manifesting some other false belief, we can instantly know that man as God's reflection is honest, loving, harmonious, thus refusing to see the real man as lacking any quality of his creator, God, as less than perfect.

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