Changing the Notion of Chance

W. GORDON GRAHAM

An infantry patrol picking its way through enemy country came to a point where there was a choice of several routes to its objective. The patrol commander paused to consider. Like so many things, both on the field of battle and in human life generally, the choice of the route seemed to be purely a matter of chance. In a military operation it is assumed that judgment and planning can ensure success only up to a certain point. Beyond that point the success of the operation is considered uncertain.

The patrol commander might thus have assumed it to be immaterial which course he took. As a Christian Scientist, however, he knew that man is not at the mercy of circumstance, but that in his true and constant status as the much-loved child of God, he is protected and guided by his Father. In studying the Christian Science textbook. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, that morning, he had read the following passage on page 424: "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony."

At the moment of choice, the part of this sentence beginning "we must leave," recurred to his thought, and he turned consciously and humbly to God for guidance, realizing that man as His reflection has ever available the wisdom of the one Mind. The object of the patrol was thereafter accomplished successfully. Later, when the battle was over, the enemy positions were examined, and it was found that there was no other route the patrol could have used without suffering severe casualties. The patrol commander was deeply grateful for this instance of God's protection.

Christian Science, which Mrs. Eddy discovered and gave to the world in her textbook, is no vague assurance of future salvation. It is the law of God, revealing the way or system by which heaven, harmony, may here and now be the experience of all who sincerely apply its precepts. In such a system there is no element of chance.

That man is subject to the whim of a kind or unkind fate is a false concept of mortal mind. Mankind's apparent inability to help itself is the result of the supposed power of wrong thinking, just as the ability to heal sin, disease, and death—error of every sort—is the direct and inevitable result of right thinking, thinking based on the truths of immortal Mind.

It was not by good luck that David conquered Goliath. David relied upon God with his whole heart. Did he not say (I Sam. 17: 45), "I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts"? There was no possibility of failure in that approach. We read in Psalms (46:1), "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." This statement is as efficacious today as it was in the days of the battles against the Philistines. Now, as then, "the battle is the Lord's" and victory is sure to him who is realizing man's oneness with God.

Had the patrol commander relied partly on his map and compass, partly on his own judgment, and partly upon God, the chance of mistaking his route would have remained. His complete turning to God precluded this chance. That God is ever available to save, to protect, to heal, is the teaching of Christian Science. An understanding of God, even in a small measure, enlists the infinite power to raise us out of chaos into cosmos, from the illogicality of human existence to the logic of divine Life, even as Christ Jesus demonstrated. "Our Master," states Mrs. Eddy on page 26 of Science and Health, "taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief. It was the divine Principle of all real being which he taught and practised."

Copyright, 1945, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston 15, Massachusetts-Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918. Published every Saturday. Cost of remailing within the United States: I cent for each two ounces or fraction thereof. Foreign, including Canada, Newfoundland, and Pan-American countries: 1½ cents for each two ounces or fraction thereof.

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