["Church of the Air" Talk over Columbia Broadcasting System by John C. Lathrop, December 3, 1933]

Subject: "There is Always a Way Out"

The Station Announcer made the statement: "This Christian Science program on the 'Church of the Air' period is presented by the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Massachusetts with the approval of The Christian Science Board of Directors of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts."

Three hymns, from the Christian Science Hymnal, were sung by a quartet, the first hymn being, "Rouse ye, soldiers of the cross" (No. 296).

Mr. Lathrop then read an address as follows:

"Many a man or woman who has been hunting a way out of trouble without finding it, is saying in these days of depression, 'I have hunted for the way out until I am footsore and weary—literally and figuratively. I haven't found it, and I don't believe it exists, for I am still in a maze of misfortune.'

"Here let me say to you, friends, that there is a way out, and you can find it, as hundreds of thousands have done before you, if you will but follow the guidebook, and keep moving. That guidebook is the Bible, and it points the way in the words of the most proficient guide and the most successful man who ever trod the globe—Jesus of Nazareth, who said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.'

"It may be asked, What is the first step to be taken by the man who is seeking the way out, and who, let us say, has lost his position, his income, his health, and is deserted by many of his supposed friends, and each day sees himself slipping farther down the incline, without a landing place in sight? He surely has been traveling on the wrong road, but how and where must he turn? The first step in the right direction is for him to know that God has had nothing to do with his afflictions—with weakening him by ill health, pinching him with poverty, or darkening him with discouragement. God, who is omnipotent, who is all-powerful, destroys evil; He never sends it.

"At this stage of the journey, if the traveler looks a little into Christian Science, he will find that God is infinite good, all-loving, all-wise, and eternal—that God sends no evil upon anyone, but does provide all good for all of us, and that we shall get less of the bitter and more of the sweet in the proportion that we closely follow the leader who, in speaking to those who are bewildered, perplexed, disheartened, not knowing which way to turn, has said, 'Follow me'! He always brings them safely home, if they will keep to the trail he has blazed.

"If our friend will look still further into Christian Science he will see that what he thinks, he gets; that is, if his thinking is right, the things that are wrong will no longer come to him, for our thoughts shape our deeds and determine what comes to us, good or bad. In the textbook of Christian Science, 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' written by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, may be found these words of demonstrable truth (p. 261): 'Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.'

"So, if the man seeking the way out examines his thinking, we may hear him say: 'I shall have to change my thought about a number of things in order to get out of this. Here I have been pitying myself habitually, so self-pity has to go. I have been actually feeding on discouragement, so we will put that in the discard. I have read somewhere that a sure cure for discouragement is to take a dose of gratitude every morning, so I'll look around and see if I can't find something to be grateful for. They tell me that hatred brings disease, and that loving heals it. I am not yet ready to do more loving, but I surely can do less hating; so out goes hate. And how about that grouch I have been nursing for so long? It never gets me anywhere nor brings me anything but gloom. They tell me that nursing a grouch curdles the milk of human kindness, and as I haven't too much of that anyway, out goes old man grouch. I don't want to join the army of those joy-killers who are happy only when they are miserable. Then, too, I have been doubting if there even is a God; or, if there is, does He really care enough for me to lift me out of this? That, I guess, is rank infidelity, and as I am neither an atheist nor a pagan, I will cut that right out of my thinking also.'

"By and by as things grow brighter and as he finds that there is always a way out, he becomes more and more convinced that good ultimately overcomes evil, for God is omnipotent; that where ignorance yields misery, understanding brings happiness, for God is omniscient; and that opportunities for betterment are unlimited, for God is omnipresent.

"If on our way out, we travel more slowly than our neighbor, we should remember that speed is only relative on this straight and narrow way. 'The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,' as we read in the Scriptures. The man who makes the most mileage today may be the last one in tomorrow; and the one who at first has been slow to arrive may, after a while, be among the first to cross the line. But of this be assured, that the experience most needed by each one of us individually is given us as we go along, in the exact proportion that we are looking expectantly to our destination and are finding the way out through seeking 'first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.'

"The way out is always available to all men, but it does not appear in exactly the same form to everyone, and some find it quicker than others do. To some it leads into new ways and byways; to others it parallels the old road, but on higher ground and under brighter skies; to others still the way out calls for struggling, and strength comes to them with the striving. Others get frequent glimpses, though faint, of the truth, which cheers and sustains them as they go along; while still others, like Paul, are almost blinded by the dazzling brilliancy of a single truth, so potent, so precious, so practical, that, unconsumed, it remains with them their whole journey through."

The quartet then sang Hymn No. 160, "Satisfied" (words by Mary Baker Eddy).

Following this, Mr. Lathrop read from the Bible as follows: Isaiah 11:1–4 (to colon); John 1:6–9, 11–14, 17; 10:7 (to comma), 11, 12, 15–17; 14:1, 2, 5, 6, 12; Philippians 2:1–3, 5; 4:4, 5, 8, 7. And from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy: Pref. vii:1–13; 248:12–32; 326:16–13 (to second period); 327: 17; 171:4–16; 126:22–31; 241:23–14.

The quartet then sang Hymn 258, "Oft to every man and nation."

Mr. Lathrop pronounced the benediction from Micah 6:8.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness; nothing so gentle as real strength.—Francis de Sales.