What inspired the prophet Isaiah to record this divine counsel, "Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me"? It was the voice of Spirit proclaiming the complete righteousness, health, and harmony of man in God's likeness. The first step toward finding the guidance we need lies in our willingness to seek it not from persons or according to human judgment, but prayerfully, teachably, at its fount in divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy states (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 359): "Men give counsel; but they give not the wisdom to profit by it. To ask wisdom of God, is the beginning of wisdom."

Take the question of health, for instance. Most people in case of sickness consult physical conditions and then put their trust in the prescribed physical remedies. They look away from the harmonious evidence of the spiritual senses instead of toward it. The Christian Scientist is taught to seek the counsel of Spirit and spiritual perfection, and to reject the often distressing evidence of the physical senses. He learns that divine counsel is universally available, and that blessings are at hand for all who follow it.

Underlying the counsel of Christ Jesus, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," is Truth's law of perfection, which alone rules imperfection out of human thought and experience. Many a student of Christian Science, formerly the slave of bad temper and temperament, terrorism of the senses, invalidism, has demonstrated through Christian Science his divinely bestowed ability to express health and freedom from sinful indulgences. He takes counsel of God, the only creator, and so glimpses his spiritual identity, exempt from materiality. Thus he avoids the bewildering labyrinth of human opinion and becomes conscious of the guidance of divine Mind and the way to follow it on all occasions. To obey the counsel, "Ask me of things to come concerning my sons," means taking counsel of divine Principle in all that relates to intelligence, law, government, justice, mercy.

The Christian Scientist turns for counsel to Spirit and spiritual law when faced with moral weakness, mental deficiency, disease, debt, or any other of the myriad handicaps to which humanity seems subject through traditional consent. Spiritual man, on the contrary, expresses the spiritual characteristics of joy, purity, wisdom, and the faithful appropriation of this fact brings liberation to those who seem enslaved by the opposite mortal characteristics.

Human counsel often aggravates difficulties arising in the human family, for the whispered counsel of the "carnal mind" is apt to stimulate self-justification, resentment, retaliation. But the wise man said, "Hear counsel, and receive instruction." The one infallible basis on which to establish unity in human relationships is through each one's demonstration of the spiritual individuality which harmonizes with every other God-given individuality. In the government of divine Love there is no clash of self-will, no conflicting ambition, no fear, no superstitious belief in dissension and fatalism. From the one Mind emanates all that is stabilizing and unifying. Wise action follows, therefore, as one obeys the unerring counsel of divine Mind, which alone rules out human errancy.

The writer of Hebrews refers to "the immutability of his [God's] counsel." In this immutability lies the remedy for all that is weak, irresponsible, mutable. But one must be willing to listen if he would hear what he needs to hear. "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels." In the Bible we find the opposite results of seeking human or divine counsel. Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, having consulted the soothsayers and astrologers for the interpretation of his dream, failed to find it through them. This interpretation was given him when he turned to Daniel, a young man who sought counsel of God. He it was who revealed to Nebuchadnezzar both the danger that threatened him according to his present course of action and the way to turn from this mistaken course.

The counsel of divine Principle leads one away from sin and sickness, away from fear, false appetites, and headstrong will, into health, wisdom, foresight. The good results of obeying the counsel, "Ask me of things to come concerning my sons," surpasses all that human counsel has ever brought forth. Sin not, is the counsel of divine Principle; lie not, the counsel of Truth; fear not, the counsel of divine Love. Whatever may have been one's past mistakes, and however great the temptations of the present time, they need no longer cast their shadow on our upward pathway. "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light."

Violet Ker Seymer