Article February 8, 1975 Issue

Can Man Fail?

EDWIN G. LEEVER

The young man was dejected. His dreams of accomplishment in his new business were turning to ashes. Business was down, income nil, money vanishing, and creditors pressing hard. It looked like complete failure for the whole enterprise.

But he couldn't accept this. He was a student of Christian Science, and turned to the writings of Mrs. Eddy to see what he was doing wrong and what he could do right. He began studying references on "fail" and "failure" to try to shed some light on this whole fiasco. But nothing he read did much for him. The anguish and anxiety were still there.

He persisted, though, knowing that God would reveal to him what he needed to know. He soon got his answer: "Truth [another name for God in Christian Science] never falters nor fails; it is our faith that fails."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 130;} Why, there it was, and it was so simple. Man, made in God's likeness—the man he really was—could not fail, any more than Truth, or God, could. But if not backed up by spiritual understanding, one's faith could fail.