Article January 7, 1933 Issue

Three Essentials

WILLIAM R. RATHVON

"A threefold cord is not quickly broken" (Eccl. 4:12) is an apt saying written two centuries before the coming of him, Christ Jesus, who with a scourge of small cords drove commercialism out of the domain of devotion. (See John 2:15.) Today every exponent of Christian Science will do well to see that he binds his endeavors with threefold cords not to be quickly broken.

There are three phases of efficacious application of Christian Science which can be broadly designated as the practical, the intellectual, and the spiritual; and only when these are merged in right proportion is a complete exposition of our religion in evidence. When either of them is unduly subordinated, desired results may not follow. As there must be soil, light, and moisture to produce vegetation, so the practical, the intellectual, and the spiritual elements are to be blended harmoniously in our work of presenting and demonstrating Christian Science, that it may be understood and appreciated by humankind. This is the process and progress indicated by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 256): "Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal."

As it is with the provable and pragmatical components of our religion, so is it with its expository and exegetical as well as its ideal and divine elements. If our natural inclinations lead us to stress the practical side of our work to the diminution of the intellectual and the spiritual, we should strive to acquire a proper ratio of all three in order to be mentally clothed in the undivided garment. When our destination lies three miles straight ahead, we cannot reach it by going but one mile or even two. The Science of Mind-healing must go hand in hand with the art of its application.

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