Editorial July 16, 1949 Issue

TOO MUCH ADVICE

George Channing

How much advice should a Christian Scientist give? How much should he accept? The answer is clear in statement and implication in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. All advice, it is clear, should be reducible to the simple admonition to look to God for guidance. The reality of divine Mind, its demonstrable presence as the Mind of every individual, constitutes assurance of guidance which amounts to infallible direction for him who desires it enough to apply the spiritual rule by which it is realized.

Mrs. Eddy writes, for instance, in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 236) to the effect that to persons seeking advice on family difficulties she reduced her counsel to its essence. She had, she explains, told the child complaining about his parents that he should love and honor and obey them in what is right, but he must know that he, like everyone, has rights of conscience which require him always to follow God. She explains further that to married persons asking her direction she had said, "'Take no counsel of a mortal, even though it be your best friend; but be guided by God alone;' meaning by this, Be not estranged from each other by anything that is said to you, but seek in divine Love the remedy for all human discord."

It is noteworthy that in the statement just quoted Mrs. Eddy indicates that in the degree that she permitted her opinion to enter at all, it was on the side of harmony and unity because, it is well to observe, harmony and unity are on the side of God. Everyone, it should be emphasized, must employ for himself the highest wisdom he can demonstrate, for thereby he is enabled to demonstrate more and more wisdom; but he is entitled not to be urged by another's advice into a sense of inharmony, separation, or discord. It is the mission of Christian Science to remove inharmonies, to save human beings from discord, not to counsel them into it.

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