God's Unerring Direction

[Written Especially for Young People]

IDA M. EGGINSON

Some young people decide early in life what line of work they wish to follow, while others seem slower in making this decision.

In Isaiah we read, "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." Perhaps a study of this verse may prove helpful.

Christian Science teaches that the man God created is always in his right place. We read in the Scriptures that he abides "in the secret place of the most High," "in the house of the Lord," "in my love." Such phrases reveal man's close communion with God and his inseparability from Him. Christian Science also teaches that God is Mind. Ideas are the product of Mind; therefore man, Mind's idea, cannot be separated from Him. By holding to this truth and denying the belief that man could be anywhere but in his right place, we demonstrate divine guidance in human affairs.

The words, "This is the way," point to a clear perception of a course to follow, and by careful listening for a "word behind thee," or the voice of God, one hears His direction. No opinion of so-called mortal mind should be allowed to enter the thought listening for the voice, or direction, of God. It is only by shutting out mortal mind that we hear divine direction.

The words, "when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left," may signify that a choice must be made as to which path to follow; but when we have clearly heard God's direction, we can go forward with perfect confidence in the knowledge that each idea is always in its right place. In Mind there is no indecision, no uncertainty, no vacillation nor frustration.

Then, too, we should know that the means of expression or fulfillment are always at hand. There is no chance in the fulfillment of God's plan. He directs, guides, and fulfills. When, for example, we see the bud and blossom on the fruit tree, we know certainly that fruitage will follow; so, in proportion to our understanding of Christian Science, does the fruit or fulfillment of this understanding follow. Each idea which God imparts to the human consciousness unfolds and bears fruit—comes to fulfillment.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 254), "When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path." We must wait on God in the sense of serving Him. To fold the hands in passive waiting is surely not what our Leader meant in her statement, for in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 2) she writes, "The song of Christian Science is, 'Work—work—work—watch and pray.'" Our work is faithfully to reflect Truth; then error will disappear from our thought. We must watch our thoughts continually, allowing only righteous thoughts to enter. Only righteous judgment must find lodgment in our consciousness. We must pray in acknowledgment of and gratitude for all the good that God is ever bestowing upon us. Thus we shall be ready to hear and to follow His direction.

The Bible is filled with accounts of the fulfillment of God's promises of direction. In I Kings we read of the experience of Elijah the Tishbite, who was instructed by God to hide himself "by the brook Cherith," for there he would find food and drink during a time of famine. He did as he was directed and drank of the brook, and the ravens fed him. Later he was told to go to Zarephath, and there "a widow woman" would sustain him. If he had not been receptive and obedient to the guidance of God, he would not have been thus sustained during the famine which ravaged the land. However, he heeded the voice of God, did as he was told, and so demonstrated for himself and for the widow and her son the fact that God's promises are fulfilled.

The influence of the Bible on our national thought and speech is one of the strongest forces in the miraculous development of America. In our formative period when books were few and time to read and think was ample, everybody had the Bible and everybody read it and pondered over what he read. Thus the Bible entered into American national life in a manner not experienced by any other people. Unlearned as Andrew Jackson was, he hit upon an American fundamental when he dogmatically asserted that "the Bible is the rock upon which our Republic rests."

Hon. Albert J. Beveridge

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