Article August 7, 1943 Issue

The Serviceman: a Modern Disciple

W. NORMAN COOPER

Many a young man today is being called into the service of his country's armed forces. The very word "service" seems to imply selflessness, co-operativeness, friendliness, kindly understanding, and other God-bestowed qualities. To the student of Christian Science it means even more, for he strives to see and acknowledge, both for himself and for his fellow man, the fact of man's sonship as the child of God. This is the service that Christ Jesus offered to his fellow men; and it was through this service—through this knowledge of man's status as the image and likeness of God— that he healed the sick and reformed the sinning.

Any right human experience is made happier and more fruitful if it is approached with enthusiasm. And the individual's experience in the service is no exception. A Christian Scientist has the right to approach any experience joyously, for he knows that as the son of God he is master of the situation. While submitting to the law requiring vaccination, for instance, the soldier or sailor who is a Christian Scientist should know that man is spiritual, and this fact understood will help him to prove that the experience cannot harm him.

The man in the service should actively resist the aggressive mental suggestion that he is not in his right place. He should persistently know that there is no law of chance in God's economy. On page 183 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes, "To suppose that God constitutes laws of inharmony is a mistake; discords have no support from nature or divine law, however much is said to the contrary."

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