Undisturbed

Ella W. Hoag

There is perhaps nothing which the thoughtful portion of mankind has a greater longing to attain than the ability to remain undisturbed at all times, whatever the apparent circumstances. Wise men know that if they could but gain and maintain this important ability they would make tremendous strides towards that dominion over themselves and their affairs which they all so fervently desire. They recognize clearly that there is nothing much more detrimental to right thinking and right acting than a sense of confusion. With mental disturbance holding sway, little if any right activity can be carried on; while if calmness reigns, a great step has been taken towards the working out of any and every problem.

Paul reached the point where, in the very midst of bonds and afflictions, he could declare, "But none of these things move me." He could go on all undisturbed, even though to the human sense of things there appeared to be every reason for mental perplexity and disturbance. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 306) our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, has revealed the foundation stone upon which such confidence as Paul's may be laid. There she writes: "Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal." Thus did Mrs. Eddy show where all calmness lies,—in Science, where "the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle" is continually unfolding its ever present perfections. And right here is where Christian Scientists find they may rest securely and all undisturbed.

Even this security, however, demands demonstration; and it is very necessary that Christian Scientists realize always that they can gain the quietness reflected from Spirit only as they learn to understand and obey the behests of this Science. Only as they hold steadfastly all undisturbed to the rules of Christian Science, whatever the seeming, declaring the truths these rules reveal, can they emerge triumphantly from their difficulties.

Perhaps there is nothing which disturbs the honest, earnest student of Christian Science more than his own apparent failure to measure up to what he believes to be the demands of this Science. Sometimes, for instance, he works long and earnestly on some problem without making much if any apparent progress towards its solution. Then the suggestions of error begin to pour into his consciousness and he allows himself to become very much disturbed. He wonders where he is failing in his work. He begins to doubt his own method as well as his application of it. He accepts all sorts of arguments of inability and lack of understanding, and so on indefinitely. This is because he is forgetting that he really exists in Science, which "is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal."

Right here, then, he should call a halt to all sense of disturbance; for here is where he must cling more steadfastly than ever before to the facts of Truth and Love. Here he must know that Truth declared is the very law of God in operation, and that if held to will certainly prove itself all-powerful. Suppose he recognizes that in his endeavor to demonstrate Christian Science he seems to be swinging from one extreme to another, accomplishing little if anything in the right direction? Right here he must, all undisturbed, hold more resolutely than ever before to the supreme truths of divine Mind, trusting Mind to bring forth the right evidences which are always the ultimate result of the active, consecrated use of these truths. As he does this, he will find the tendency to extremes will continually lessen and his demonstrations will become more and more rapid and more and more secure in method and application.

This ability to rest undisturbed while learning to demonstrate Christian Science—as each one must finally do—is one of the most important lessons in our pupilage. If under each trial of our faith, if under each long-drawn-out experience in demonstration, we will remember that we are only having opportunities to trust under difficulties, to prove ourselves faithful under trying exigencies, to maintain unfaltering loyalty to God and His Science, under the assaults of doubt and fear; then we shall be able to keep on all undisturbed, clinging to Truth with the assurance that it cannot fail to fulfill its own law of turning and overturning until it reign. We shall thus find our victories multiplying and our confidence increasing; for we shall have proved the righteousness whose end Isaiah declares is "quietness and assurance for ever." It is in such ways as this that God worketh in us "both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Ella W. Hoag

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The All-Inclusiveness of God

August 8, 1925

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