Why Are We Christian Scientists?

[Written Especially for Young People]

E. OLIVE DAVIS

IN the sixth chapter of John's Gospel are related the following incidents. At the Master's command a multitude of five thousand had been fed with five barley loaves and two small fishes, and the disciples had gathered up and filled twelve baskets with the fragments which remained. Later, Jesus, walking toward them on the sea, had joined his companions whose ship was buffeted by the wind. "And immediately the ship was at the land whither they went." Then there came a large group of people seeking for Jesus, curious to know how he had come to Capernaum. Jesus' reply is significant: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled."

Seeking Christ, Truth, for the loaves and fishes instead of for an understanding of the power which produced the miracles is not confined to the era in which Jesus lived. Even quite young Christian Scientists who have never been associated with any other religious teaching than that of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, can be said to be seekers of the loaves and fishes if they are not striving to gain and apply for themselves an understanding of the divine Principle which underlies this teaching.

Sometimes children who have been reared in Christian Science have been the beneficiaries of its blessings so continuously that they come to expect health, harmony, protection, and supply to be manifest in their lives just as a matter of course. In some cases they have failed to realize that their parents have been counted on to make home harmonious, to supply all their needs, to protect them from harm, and that if an occasional physical difficulty arose, one of their parents, or possibly a faithful practitioner, did the scientific thinking which restored harmony. In other words, the peace and happiness which have been theirs were frequently the result of the demonstrated understanding of an older Christian Scientist.

Unless this state of things is seen and corrected, such children may grow up into young manhood and womanhood still expecting to find the loaves and fishes supplied for them, never having learned the joy of applying the Principle of Christian Science in their own experience. In their school life they may talk of trying to "demonstrate" a victory in an athletic contest or a good mark in an examination, showing that they have not yet grasped the fact that what one actually demonstrates through Christian Science is not things, but the truth of being. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 468), "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation."

This does not mean that young people should look upon Christian Science as something abstract and impractical, entirely apart from their everyday activities. Nor should they regard it as a joyless religion which postpones happiness indefinitely. The discovery of our great Leader, "that Mind is All and matter is naught," she has termed "the leading factor in Mind-Science" (ibid., p. 109), and we must all set about, as she did, to demonstrate this proposition in our daily lives. This will involve for each of us the effort to detect, in our thinking, whatever is opposed to this fundamental truth, and to cast it out. It may argue to one of us that we are lacking in sufficient intelligence with which to achieve success in school; but if Mind is All, then intelligence, which is one of Mind's attributes, is All, and therefore present with Mind's likeness. It may argue to another that he lacks the needed strength or alertness and will never make a good athlete. But if Mind is All-power, Mind's idea, man, cannot be lacking in strength. Or it may argue to a third that he is not liked, that he cannot make friends, that he is unattractive. Yet, Mind is All, and man, the image of Mind, must be, in quality, just like Mind, like Love, and therefore intelligent, lovely, and lovable.

Of course, more than just an utterance of these statements is necessary in order to prove their truth. If we are going to prove that we are like Mind, we must study to find out what Mind is. We must keep constantly in thought this glorious aim. "To understand God," Mrs. Eddy tells us, "is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire" (Science and Health, p. 3). But our everyday life is our proving ground, and we grow stronger with every effort to test our thoughts and make them conform to the basic proposition that Mind is All. No one else can do this work for us.

In our demonstration of Christian Science we must first be sure that we know and understand the fundamental truth on which it is based, and then we must make the necessary effort to put this knowledge into practice. Then will our own lives be blessed with the evidences of God's goodness, and what is more, others, seeing it, may be encouraged to seek and prove that Mind is All. Our Leader tells us in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 93): "If Christian Science reiterates St. Paul's teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the world a struggle for its demonstration."

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