Article August 20, 1938 Issue

Believing and Progressing

JOHN WHITE

In expressing the relationship which exists between God and man, the Scriptures make frequent use of the word "believe" and its derivatives. Because their beliefs are usually their dearest religious convictions, men have held them sacred throughout their experience. Therefore it is wise and necessary to have a definite, intelligent understanding of the meaning of the word "believe"; and students of Christian Science are grateful that there has been brought to them an interpretation of this word ascribing to it a fuller meaning than that of mere human assent to some specific doctrine.

All thoughtful people, at one time or another, have asked themselves what was really meant when, for example, in response to Philip's instruction, the eunuch said he believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, or when Paul and Silas exhorted the jailor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

Christian Scientists recognize that to believe in the teachings and example of "the Lord Jesus Christ," is essential to our present and eternal salvation. As they seek to obey the apostle's beautiful command in all its aspects, they begin to see that in all respects the Way-shower's life is worthy of their earnest emulation; and in their effort to reflect the spiritual qualities he reflected, they recognize firmness and steadfastness to be essentials. To "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" is to understand that he stood for the highest morality, healed the sick, raised the dead, and demonstrated, despite the alleged bondage of the flesh, man's perfect unity with God. It is also to recognize that he became the Way-shower, making plain the way of salvation from every form of error, proving its ineffectiveness in his own experience, and in that of others. Thus he set an example so far above a merely mental assent or human believing, as to set our feet upon the path of demonstrating for ourselves the perfection of being.

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