Article January 10, 1948 Issue

RISING VERSUS RUMINATING

CHARLES KENDRICK MILLER

The Apostle Paul said (II Cor. 12:10), "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake." Christian Science reveals God as infinite good, and declares that because sin, sickness, and inharmony are not of God, they cannot be attributed to Him and are without a creator; hence they are unreal.

Accordingly, Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 444), "In some way, sooner or later, all must rise superior to materiality, and suffering is oft the divine agent in this elevation." When one glimpses the possibility of proving himself superior to his difficulties, he begins to look upon them somewhat as an enthusiastic student in any line looks upon problems, as opportunities for proving what he is learning rather than as occasions for discouragement.

When pain, sorrow, lack, or discord of any nature confronts us, are we tempted to think: "What caused this to come upon me? What would this be called in materia medica? Perhaps this is difficult to heal"? Such thinking, like the pedaling of a squirrel inside a cylindrical cage, keeps us busy but does not get us out of bondage. But, thanks to the revelation of Christian Science, humanity can rise above its self-imposed bondage. Our Leader makes plain the way out where she says (ibid., p. 242): "There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses."

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