Article March 3, 1945 Issue

Restoration and Reconstruction

OLGA B. MARTIN

In approaching the problem of reconstruction, it is important to realize at the outset that in reality nothing has ever suffered damage or been lost. Every idea of goodness, usefulness, and beauty exists now in the divine economy as before, because, as Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 544): "No mortal mind has the might or right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God."

In the absolute sense war has never been; discord has never disturbed eternal harmony, wherein all is complete and imperishable. Therefore there can in reality be no baneful effect, no desolation or suffering, to correct. Having made these absolute declarations, we are, of course, aware that we cannot rest there. It is no part of Christian Science to shelve the seeming problems that confront humanity. On the contrary. Christian Scientists are ever ready to do battle with the red dragon of evil, and to meet every adverse circumstance with the truth until truth is seen to be established.

Let us take the inspired words of Isaiah for guidance (Isa. 33:6): "And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation."' Here seems to be the keynote of the whole situation: without wisdom and knowledge there can be no lasting stability, no true salvation. It is undeniable that no experience leaves us where it finds us. If we seem to suffer, there is something to be learned; if we seem to encounter loss, then there is certainly a need for truer enrichment, a deeper understanding of what constitutes man and his inheritance. There is, indeed, no condition, however sorrowful it may seem, by which we may not attain to greater spiritual stature, if only we are willing to learn the way, and to leave the outgrown for the new.

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