Article April 28, 1951 Issue

THE STARTING POINT

INEZ FIELD DAMON

Sometimes in human experience emergencies arise, when some unforeseen combination of circumstances calls for instant and wise action. Such action must be fearless and definite. This was recognized by a young lad in a Christian Science Sunday School, who once asked: "When you get into trouble and you want to use your Christian Science quick, what do you do first? Where do you start?" The question was a good one and, like all questions relating to the application of Christian Science, it is answered in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, as well as in her other writings. A direct reply to this lad's inquiry is found in the statement (Science and Health, p. 275), "The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind,—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle."

Here, then, is where Christianly scientific thinking begins. Whenever sudden danger, fear, illness, accident, or confusion may seem to assail, the Christian Scientist turns instantly to God and His allness. In the degree that a realization of God's presence comes into his consciousness, fear goes out. This brings the mental process into accord with Mrs. Eddy's statement (ibid., p. 410), "Christian scientific practice begins with Christ's keynote of harmony, 'Be not afraid!'" If one feels himself too disturbed by error to think clearly, he can at least begin by saying the word God; then he can hold fast to that word until some measure of its healing significance begins to dawn.

This was exemplified during the last war in the experience of a young lad who had been a pupil in a Christian Science Sunday School. During a bombing event a bomb exploded very near him. For an instant he felt helpless with fear. Then the words came to him. "Use your Christian Science." As he related it: "In a flash I saw that Christen Science was not something merely to be read or talked about, but something to do, and I began to do Christian Science. All I could do at first was to say the word God. As I spoke this word vigorously. I began to think of the three omni's I had learned in Sunday School, and I felt that God was omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; that He was the only power, presence, and intelligence right there, that moment, in the midst of all that seeming confusion. I grew calm; fear left me; I knew what to do, and I did it." The harm done by the bomb proved very slight. How at one was the thought of this Scientist with that of the Psalmist when he wrote (Ps. 56:3), "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."

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