To-day, as on the day of Pentecost, "the wonderful works of God" are revealed, through Christian Science, to the devout seeker for Truth; but now, as then, each one, listening to the Word, hears of the "works of God" in his own language, and only as his understanding is illuminated does he speak with the "new tongue."
One marvels that his friends do not accept the Truth as taught in Christian Science, especially when they see what it has done for him. But it is a question of evidence, or, to be more precise, of growth. The writer has often wondered at our Lord's answer to the disciples when asked why he taught in parables: "Unto you," he said, "it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: . ... lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them" (Mark, 4:11, 12). On the face of it, this seems to be a hard, inexorable decree, but like many other statements of the Master, it contained a profound thought. It is very evident that the Master intended to teach, in this parable of the sower, the fact that there must be a preparation of the mind, a desire (which may be latent) for the Truth, before it can possibly be accepted. Naturally, therefore, these questions arise: How is the mind or heart to be prepared? What produces the "good ground"? Have we nothing to do with it?
The novice in Christian Science is over-anxious to convert his friends, and eager to expound the Principle of his religion, and it is only as he begins to mature that these inclinations are abandoned. He finds that his methods are inoperative; that his eagerness and anxiety invalidates his arguments. "Criticism ... begets hostility of thought" (Emerson). In the calm, immovable, spiritual bearing of the Christian, there is an influence which attracts and draws, reflecting, as it does, the unity, omnipresence, and omnipotence of Love and Good. As the magnet induces magnetism in other bodies, attracting and drawing them by its unseen, yet powerful and irresistible force, and as each body so magnetized becomes in its turn a medium of attraction, so Truth attracts and draws all men, and the more it draws, the stronger becomes the current flowing Truthward.
