Proper Procedure

W. Stuart Booth

Even by many who are known as non-Christians, the teachings of Christ Jesus are acknowledged as idealistic, if not inspired. His parables are regarded by them as gems, and the Sermon on the Mount as lofty in sentiment and expression. But Christian Science so stresses the practicality of Christ Jesus' teachings that they take on added luster and brighter hue when regarded through the perfect and perfecting lens of this Science.

Thus, a single point in connection with one of our Master's precious parables is found to be of practical value in demonstrating the rules of divine Principle. The parable is that one wherein "the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." When, however, the tares appeared with the wheat, the zealous servants were restrained from rushing forth to gather up the tares; for they were told: "Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."

Apparently referring to this parable Mrs. Eddy points a helpful lesson in her writings. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 72) she states: "Mortal belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth (the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which are not united by progress, but separated." Thus it may be said that the tares, or false material beliefs, are sown in the field of human consciousness while men sleep; in other words, material beliefs are merely phases of the Adam-dream depicted in the second and subsequent chapters of Genesis.

When one who is ready to receive spiritual truth turns to Christian Science, frequently it is because he is well aware of the presence of disturbing tares in his human experience, which he has failed to eradicate by the use of commonly employed material means. It may be that the tares appear as disease, as fear, or as some enslaving sin. Now Christian Science teaching always begins with the truth about God—that the divine Principle of the universe including man, is Love, immutable good; that God is Spirit, and therefore that man, God's image and likeness, is spiritual—imaging forth that which is like Spirit, divine Love. Thus it may be seen why Christ Jesus defined the devil or evil as "a liar" and the father of lies, and likewise why Christian Science classifies sin, sickness, limitation, fear—all discord—as error.

Because these discords or error appear to be real to spiritually uninstructed mankind, the human impulse is to combat them as something veritable and having power. When, for instance, one is beset with a sense of sickness manifested physically, it is humanly natural that he should think that his greatest need is to get rid of that sickness. So perhaps his impelling motive in his study of the Bible and Science and Health is merely to replace a sense of physical disease with a sense of physical ease, instead of striving for the Mind of Christ. Thus, in effect his mental attitude may be like that of the servants in the parable whose human impulse was to uproot the tares instead of considering the garnering of the wheat.

The harvest is an individual experience; and so the harvest time may be said to be when one is ready to relinquish false material beliefs—the tares—in order that he may reap the fruits of Spirit. He cannot enjoy the blessings, the harmony, and the freedom of Spirit while cling to material beliefs as if they were real and had power to confer either pleasure or pain. So we see that the orderly procedure is to recognize the tares—material beliefs—as errors, negative and powerless, which are therefore to be displaced, disproved, and destroyed through the realization of God's ever-presence and omnipotence, and of man as reflecting the divine likeness. We are not merely to declare these spiritual truths; we must learn to love and live them. For, as Mrs. Eddy advises in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 117): "The student of Christian Science must first separate the tares from the wheat; discern between the thought, motive, and act superinduced by the wrong motive or the true—the God-given intent and volition—arrest the former, and obey the latter. This will place him on the safe side of practice."

W. Stuart Booth

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July 9, 1932

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