Editorial September 13, 1941 Issue

The Certain Way of Satisfaction

Alfred Pittman

An hour or two after a normal breakfast one morning, a student of Christian Science again felt hungry. On previous occasions, when she had had such an experience, she had gone to the kitchen and eaten. But this time she considered the circumstances more carefully, and saw that the need could hardly be for more food. Instead, therefore, of eating again, she sat down and studied the week's Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly, as she had not done earlier in the morning. When she had finished, she was no longer hungry, but quite satisfied—more so than on the mornings when she had taken additional food.

The incident illustrates the improved and certain method which Christian Science supplies for dealing with any sense of restlessness, incompleteness, or lack of satisfaction. Christian Scientists are normal about eating, sleeping, and other needful human procedures. As their beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has written in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 254), "To stop eating, drinking, or being clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence are gained step by step, is not legitimate." But Christian Scientists know beyond questioning that no material procedure or condition in itself can bring satisfaction.

Having learned that this is so, however, they are not left to cry out in the words of Ecclesiastes, as many men and women have done, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." For they have learned another way, not material at all, which leads surely to contentment and joy. They have learned how to turn in thought to the all-embracing presence of God, divine Life and Love, and thus to their own true selfhood as His perfect expression. Thereby they receive comfort, inspiration, and peace, which are tangible to human sense and abundantly adequate to meet their human need. Christ Jesus assuredly pointed to this scientific and practical procedure when he said, quoting the older Scriptures, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

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