Article October 1, 2013

“The Lord thy confidence”

Originally published in the August 31, 1911 issue of The Christian Science Monitor

“For the Lord shall be thy confidence," wrote Solomon in his book of Proverbs, "and shall keep thy foot from being taken.” Devout thinkers the world over have striven to make God their confidence, because in the course of ordinary experience they have found the ways of materiality so unworthy of confidence. But how much have they had of access to God? How much of His presence has been availing to them? Have they known how to walk with Him, talk with Him, admit Him wholly into all their thoughts?

No matter how we long to trust God, unless we know how we cannot. Many men and women wish they knew God to exist and to be a help in trouble; and stop just there, not understanding where to find Him nor how to lean upon Him. Doubt suggests itself at times to almost every thinker, until he is well grounded in understanding God. Faith is not a natural attribute of the human mind, but is won by victory over the fear and the unbelief that pervade all human nature. Confidence in the infinite and eternal is something that comes in spite of and in the face of material evidences; and it is something to be sought and prayed for and sometimes mentally fought for and most zealously guarded.

Now many men doubt until proof convinces them; many disbelieve until driven for refuge to that divine Mind which enfolds us all. Like the little fish which swims in the ocean unknowingly, men have been unaware of the immensity of the infinite Mind, the Spirit, the Life, in which they really dwell. To such as these a scientific exposition of Christianity has come in this age; a revelation of actual truth about God and man and the universe. In Mrs. Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the relation of man to God is set forth; and he who understands from this teaching the oneness of his own spiritually right thinking with God, finds himself one with God in the measure that his thoughts become spiritually right. Then, as he grows in this he must part company with doubt, for knowledge and doubt do not dwell together.

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