Article February 22, 1947 Issue

Putting God First

[Of Special Interest to Young People]

MARGUERITE ALLEN CROSSMAN

Margaret , who was working on her master's degree in the college located in her home town, was troubled about a final examination in a subject which had required a great deal of memory work. Never before had she had occasion to feel fearful about the outcome during examination week; for she had always been a conscientious student in both high school and college. This time, however, things were different, for her mother had been away from home during the greater part of the term, and most of the household duties had been placed in Margaret's hands, leaving her only about forty-five minutes a day for study. Most of the other members of the class had been spending three or four hours each day on this subject.

Margaret was a student of Christian Science and was accustomed to studying the Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly the first thing each morning. On the day of the examination the thought came: "You can read the Lesson when you are through at school. Why not spend this time in reviewing for the examination?" Almost at once she realized that she must put God first if she intended to rely on Him to sustain her under all circumstances; consequently she sat down and carefully studied the Lesson-Sermon for that week. Among the helpful thoughts that she read was this one from the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 167): "Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized."

This reference, Margaret realized, was a special message for her that day. Why, that was what she was going to have to do—to rely radically on the truth to meet her need. Looking in the dictionary for further enlightenment, she found that one of the definitions given for "radical" was "reaching to the center or ultimate source." This meaning satisfied her, for she realized that the solution of her problem lay in putting complete trust in God, the source of all real life, intelligence, and being. She was comforted by the thought that just as she had never turned in vain to God for help in time of sickness, so now her radical reliance on infinite intelligence would be rewarded.

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