Article March 31, 1951 Issue

DIVINE REGULATION

WILLIAM P. DOYLE

Students of Christian Science are acquainted with an article in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy entitled "Fallibility of Human Concepts." This article relates that a man seeking employment in her brother's factory in the absence of the overseer was put to work by a practical joker pouring a bucket of water on the regulator every ten minutes. When her brother saw this performance, he said to the jester, "You must pay that man."

Mrs. Eddy's comment on this episode is interesting and instructive (p. 353): "Some people try to tend folks, as if they should steer the regulator of mankind. God makes us pay for tending the action that He adjusts. The regulator is governed by the principle that makes the machinery work rightly; and because it is thus governed, the folly of tending it is no mere jest. The divine Principle carries on His harmony."

Often there may be the temptation to give instruction from what seems to be a store of sound judgment based on experience or to give advice from a mature vantage point of observation—either of which very likely stems from mere human reasoning rather than from spiritual intuition. There are no two identical circumstances, no matter how similar they may appear. There are no two individuals with exactly the same background. So in order that everyone, without exception, can have the joyous privilege of verifying the wisdom of the words (Prov. 2:11), "Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee," it is necessary for each to have the direct, refreshing revelation of Mind, to be consciously aware of his identity as Mind's manifestation. It is readily admitted that there are times to speak with the authority of assurance, and it must be equally admitted that there are also times to keep silent and quietly know the allness of the divine presence.

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