The Question of Hazard

OUR first steps in human experience and endeavor are wont to be faulty; but, though we come far short of the ideal, it is to the present advantage of the individual, as well as to the permanent advantage of the race, that we prove true to our ideal from the moment it is clearly recognized, and strive faithfully and persistently for its attainment.

In a time of temporary defeat a large and comforting philosophy is likely to be trodden under foot by the thronging importunities of habit and of human affection; and yet the hope of humanity, and therefore of the individual, hangs upon the faithfulness and self-forgetfulness of our devotion. The question of the possible experience of human suffering or loss, because of adherence to a high ideal, is often presented to those who must decide not only for themselves but for their children, and that, too, when a given determination is likely to be strongly opposed by other members of their family, and it is therefore well to meet it frankly and understand our ground. The life and teaching of Jesus leave no room for doubt that temporary suffering and sacrifice may be incurred by those who resist and thus antagonize the asserted powers of evil. To oppose the currents of selfish human impulse and material belief is to experience their buffetings, even, perchance, to the cross, and this law obtains to-day no less certainly than it did when the martyrs marked with bleeding feet the course of their ascent. Error's resistance has varied forms of expression, some of which are no longer seen; but so long as criticism and condemnation find a place in mortal mentality, so long will all who are on the fighting line for truth need a clear and continuous consciousness of Love's protecting presence.

It would seem a splendid thing if all could rise to the consummation of this consciousness as a man vaults into the saddle, but neither human history nor the Master's teaching warrants the expectation of such an event. The whole tenor of the Word emphasizes the thought of growth as the normal process of racial advance. Heaven has not been and may not be reached at a bound, nor is the highest order of efficiency as a minister of Christ attained without labor and experience; but while all true Christian Scientists are pressing on with constant prayer for that more adequate spiritual efficiency which is so imperatively demanded today,—that dominion which is to be gained only as the clouds of material sense are dissipated by the Christ-light,—they are saved from the sense of enslavement to an evolutionary process by the remembrance that Jesus sent out his faithful followers at an early period in their discipleship, and definitely commissioned them to do those works which we may be tempted to think require not only a high order of spiritual apprehension but mature experience as well. Many times did Jesus rebuke his disciples for their slowness of heart, and he must have recognized their mability to immediately solve all the problems they were likely to meet, —an inability which was conspicuously manifest in the instance of the afflicted boy whom Jesus healed on his return from the Mount of Transfiguration,—and yet, despite their limitations, he unhesitatingly commended them to their undertaking, and they wrought a work in their day which has revolutionized the world.

The history of Christian Science abounds with kindred instances of wonderful healing done immediately after the first awakening to its truth. In very many cases the understanding of the Master's teachings, gained through our Leader's writings, has been so clear and exalted that students have been enabled to do works upon whose greatness they have marveled in later years. It is thus seen that while the movement of the larger body may be said to be evolutionary, in the case of the responsive individual an educational time limit does not necessarily precede the attainment of that perception of essential truth, and that childlike trust in it, which prepares one to rebuke sin and annul the asserted laws of disease,—and this for the reason that truth ever reaches human consciousness through revelation, not growth; through inspiration, not development. The truth is now and forever established in Divine consciousness, and as the dewdrop effectively transmits the sun's pure light, so may the childlike thought reflect the might of Mind.

The cry of "hazard" always expresses a more or less conscious or unconscious belief in the efficacy of that drug treatment which those who look to Christian Science are called to give up, and the intimation is often conveyed that until spiritual consciousness is more advanced, to rely upon Christian Science treatment alone is to assume the risk of personal loss for the sake of a consistent adherence to a transcendent ideal. It is apparent that the domination of this thought would practically interdict our progress in truth, by denying the legitimacy of spiritual endeavor prior to the attainment of spiritual completeness! The fallacy of this assumption is further established by experience. It is quite impossible that the Christian Science movement could ever have obtained or retained its present hold upon intelligent men and women, had they not come to know beyond all question that though we are but at the dawn of the demonstration of spiritual healing, it now presents not only the right means, but the most effective means of escape from physical ills. To know and accept this truth, so abundantly established in the history of Christian Science, is to be impelled to ally one's self with the heroes of the past who, by their unswerving loyalty to their highest spiritual sense, have proved for themselves and for the race that in standing for the truth our Lord demonstrated, they pursued the safest and best course, and thus escaped the possibility of regret.

John B. Willis.

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Letters
Letters to our Leader
August 26, 1905
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