Article December 25, 1954 Issue

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING TRUSTWORTHY

THOMAS A. MCCLAIN

Trustworthiness must be expressed by the individual who seeks to demonstrate Christian Science; and it is essential to continued spiritual progress. Christian Science, the truth of God and of man's relationship to Him, was revealed to this age through the spiritual discernment of Mary Baker Eddy. However, a belief in the validity of this Science and a great respect for it cannot alone enable us to demonstrate it. We must live its teachings and prove them in healing and in spiritual regeneration; and our success will depend to a great extent upon our trustworthiness. Our Leader writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 15), "Trustworthiness is the foundation of enlightened faith."

The trustworthy Christian Scientist rejoices in the ever-presence of Truth and in the eternal fact of God's perfection and allness as infinite good. Inspired with the imperativeness of the spiritual demands made on him, he recognizes that these demands can never exceed his capacity to meet them. He approaches each new situation with the calm assurance of complete trust in God. He knows that God does not burden His children with fear, afflict them with disease, or tempt them with sin. Christian Science teaches that these seeming conditions are not real—that they exist only as erroneous beliefs in so-called mortal mind.

The degree of trustworthiness expressed by the student of Christian Science is evidenced in the way he meets each suggestion of evil, or mortal mind, that comes to him. In the third chapter of Matthew we read that Jesus was baptized and received the "Spirit of God." The account continues (4:1), "Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." This experience tested the Master's trustworthiness for the ministry of healing upon which he was about to embark. Certainly in the account that follows we have an outstanding example of the trustworthiness that characterized Jesus. The devil that tempted him could not have appeared as a person, but rather in the guise of his own thinking. Instead of accepting any identification with evil, Jesus immediately reversed each erroneous suggestion with a specific declaration of Truth. He impersonalized the evil so effectively that he could declare, "Get thee hence, Satan." We read, "Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."

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