Let all things be done decently and in order.—Paul.
The lawful and orderly presentation of so important a subject as Christian Science must be recognized as one of the prime essentials of successful Christian endeavor. Always to say and to do the right thing at the right time requires more than human wisdom or impulse. Before one has learned the true inwardness of Christian Science, as well as the unwillingness of mortals to receive and appropriate the message of Truth and Love, he is very apt to ignore the divine order, and to attempt to say and do things in his own strength and wisdom. While his intentions are good, and no one can censure him for wanting to share with others the priceless blessings that have come to him, he has not yet learned the truth of the old English Proverb,—
A man may well bring a horse to the water,
But he cannot make him drinke without he will.
The great need of truth on the part of friend or foe is no argument for trying to force conclusions on the subject of Christian Science, or for urging people to do something contrary to their own present judgment. The time will come when every human being will desire to know the truth, but usually not until he can begin to say of mortal existence, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." Just to the extent that he imagines himself satisfied with materiality, just to this extent will mortal man resist the approach of the truth that comes not to bring peace to the material senses, but a sword. If we would expect to be cordially and graciously received we should be very certain that those whom we would interest in Christian Science have a sincere desire to know the truth before we attempt to say very much about metaphysics. Even then we must remember that there is a vast difference between presenting the subject for prayerful consideration and urging people to accept it.
The neophyte sometimes begins with his relatives and friends and tries to convince them that Christian Science is "the greatest thing in the world," and he need not be disappointed if it is said, even after he has seemed to win in the argument, that he had better give up Christian Science and stick to the religion of his fathers. Others will be generous enough to remark that Christian Science may be all right for him, but that it cannot possibly do anything for them. All the talking in the world cannot convince an unbeliever until he is ready to accept on trust what is told him, and to make practical application of it to his own particular needs. Careless statements of the truth, however scientific they may seem to be, made in the presence of those who would catch us in our words, are no part of an orderly presentation of Christian Science, and they will not be indulged in by the thoughtful student, who knows that there is "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." As a rule the one who does the least talking is the one who encounters the least trouble. On the plane of human experience it must be recognized that each individual is privileged to resort to every known human invention for relief from pain, and to make just as many foolish mistakes and needless experiments as he cares to; and the Christian Scientist, knowing as he does that God's law is one of perfect adjustment, will grant him this supposed privilege, and will wait patiently for the inevitable turning-point when he will surrender contentedly, even as a last resort, to the living God, who healeth all our diseases. A considerate and appreciative regard for the rights of others is a constant safeguard against premature or uncalled-for discussions upon the subject of Christian Science. One who has faith and confidence in material means is privileged to follow this faith until he reaches a point of failure, together with its consequent dissatisfaction, which will relieve him of further need of argument to turn him to a higher source for help. It is difficult to convince one who is satisfied with material ways and means, of the truth of that which contradicts the claims of matter. "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone," is the admonition of Scripture. Give him the privilege of proving all things, so that he may finally "hold fast that which is good." A little further experience with his drugs will the sooner convince him that he is traveling the wrong road. A Christian Scientist will not urge or compel a member of his own family to have Christian Science treatment unless this member expresses a desire for it. His constant aim is to do as he would be done by. Because he has proved the fallacy of medicine for himself, it does not follow that others have lost their confidence in the drug. It is theirs to travel in the direction their faith trends, until they become so weary and heavy-laden that they are anxious to turn away from a lifeless, non-intelligent drug to Christ, Truth, man's only Saviour. Repeated failures, suffering, and disappointment ripen human thought to a point of spiritual receptivity. The Christian Scientist well knows that these agencies are constantly at work in human consciousness and that his mission is not to force others out of their natural order of development, but to wait patiently on divine Love and the leading of divine wisdom in presenting the claims of Christian Science.
How to lead, not drive, people into the kingdom of heaven is the problem that concerns the Christian Scientist. The kingdom of heaven can no more be taken by force than can the petals of a rosebud be forced open to produce a symmetrical and harmonious picture of a rose before nature has asserted her law of perfect development and unfoldment. Just as the clay needs to be plastic and pliable before it can be successfully molded, so must the human mind be prepared to receive the message of Truth. It is right thinking, born of spiritual understanding, wisdom, and patience, that leads people into Christian Science. Obedience to "the law of kindness," hand in hand with the "silence of discretion and of respect," has melted many a stony heart. The silence of a good example does wonders towards the Christianization of human consciousness. Only as we live the truth does it become tangible and real to individual consciousness, and consequently available to human needs. Its life and potency are in the living of it, and it is this that attracts mankind. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," has a profound meaning for the Christian Scientist. It rebukes all thought of coercion and of undue human influence and endeavor. It sets the individual at work to reform himself before he tries to reform others; to purify his own false sense of God and man before trying to urge others to do this work. As his own thought becomes uplifted to discern a perfect God and perfect man, his consciousness becomes a centre of attraction rather than of repulsion, so that the earnest seeker and observer will say, You have something that I want; will you tell me how I can get it? Faithfully to point the way to such as are ready to be shown the demands of Truth and Love will furnish the student with plenty of work, and leave no time for urging them upon those who are as yet unwilling.
The student of Christian Science may well heed the admonition of his Leader, as given on page 238 of Science and Health: "It is well to wait till those whom you wish to benefit are ready for the blessing; for Science is working changes in personal character as well as in the material universe." This advice sounds the keynote of safety for all Christian endeavor, and is deserving of most prayerful consideration on the part of all disciples of Truth. It requires wisdom and patience to wait on God and to curb mere human impulse and effort. The zeal without knowledge spoken of in Scripture is too prone to assert itself and to rush precipitately in "where angels fear to tread." Not a few of those who have been over-persuaded to "try" Christian Science have gone to a practitioner simply to please some friend, with no thought of receiving any help; and they have, perhaps after a treatment or two, fully satisfied themselves that they have given Christian Science a thorough trial and that there is "nothing in it." All this may result from failure to comply with our Leader's wise counsel. An over-anxious thought on the part of one member of a family will often result in keeping some other member away from Science instead of attracting him to it, for the simple reason that there is a divinely natural order of things, which, if not interfered with by erring human wisdom and impulse, leads thought gently and naturally into the understanding of Truth. This divine order is governed by that love which "thinketh no evil," which rules out all selfishness, fear, and anxiety. The patient, silent influence of right thinking in the home, ever mindful of the fact that no man, woman, or child is to be lost, will "in due season" see the will of God made manifest.
The signs of the times indicate that human consciousness is being rapidly prepared to receive the Christ-idea. If we succeed in demonstrating the truth to those who are ready to accept it, we shall accomplish vastly more good than to try in our own wisdom to shorten the preparatory process which every mortal must needs pass through before he is willing to forsake the world and follow Christ, Truth. The eternal law of right and justice demands that every human error shall be punished to the point of self-destruction. This purifying process is going on continually, and no human interference on the part of false pity or sympathy can prevent its inevitable fulfilment. How true it is that mortal "man proposes, but God disposes." Could the mortal have his own way he would remit the penalty due for sin, and thereby leave the sinner unreformed. He spends much valuable time in endeavoring to effect a compromise between truth and error, between right and wrong. When a sin has been committed, the effort on the sinner's part is not so much to be healed of sin, as to be relieved of the suffering occasioned by the sin. The true Christian Scientist has learned his lesson along these lines, and is willing and glad to let the sin be punished in order to destroy the cause of his suffering; in other words, he allows God to dispose of the trouble according to His immutable law of justice. The only possible way of shortening the process of sin's destruction is the forsaking of sin. So long as sin is indulged, its penalty of suffering will continue. He alone finds mercy who "confesseth and forsaketh" his sins. "Now is the accepted time" to learn wisdom, but not to pluck unripe fruit nor to root out the tares before the harvest. The over-zealous effort on the part of many good people to alleviate human misery without striking at the root of the trouble has in many instances resulted in encouraging disease, poverty, indolence, and crime, and has left the sinner with the mistaken belief that God pardons sin without destroying it. Too great stress cannot be laid upon the importance of dealing with causation in all such matters instead of trying to smooth over effects. The primary object of all information is not so much to palliate sin or suffering as it is to prevent their occurrence. Christian Science lays the axe of truth at the root of the tree, and for this reason it succeeds where other systems, dealing almost wholly with physical effects, fail.
Were there no divine requirements to be fulfilled in accepting the truth, and people could be assured of freedom from pain without any moral effort on their part, multitudes would at once flock to Christian Science for help. Because this is not the manner in which the Christ-idea comes to individual consciousness, the subject of Christian Science cannot be forced upon people before they are ready to open their doors to receive it. If they do not express themselves as ready "for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," they should be left alone until meekness, charity, and sincerity begin to assert themselves. It must constantly be borne in mind that, like a schoolmaster, experience is ever at the post of duty, laboring night and day to prepare a vast army of students for the wedding feast of Truth and Love. This teacher is doing far more effectual work than he who, in his over-anxiety to hurry him into the kingdom of heaven, would rob the stranger of the very experience which will cause him to become dissatisfied with the world. Paul said, "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." Few there be who turn to God for healing before they have graduated from, or at least taken a partial course in the preparatory school of disappointment, misfortune, sorrow, and affliction. The tempting vanities of the world fortunately cannot fulfil their vain promises of pleasure, but invariably culminate in the suffering which compels mortals to seek and find refuge in Truth and Love. When they have begun to look away from the temporal and unreal they can be safely approached with the truth of Christian Science.
There are plenty of unsought opportunities for a natural and legitimate presentation of Christian Science, which preclude the necessity of thrusting the subject upon people before they are known to be dissatisfied with what they have. It does not take long to find out one's mental attitude toward Christian Science, and when it is clearly evident that his doors are closed to its approach and recognition, the only orderly course of procedure is to hold one's peace and leave the situation in God's hands. If we would be divinely led to say and do the right thing at the right time, we must guard against the selfish appeal to false human sympathy of the numerous cases of poverty, sin, and distress that are constantly being brought to our attention. As students of a demonstrable Science we may know the possibilities of divine Mind that can be utilized in their behalf, but it is unwise and unsafe to conclude that all such cases are ready to be healed according to divine law and order, or that we are privileged to insist upon their trying Christian Science whether they want it or not. To mind one's own business at such times is a glorious privilege, and one that is fully appreciated by those who are not prepared to receive a higher thought, the evidence before the physical senses cannot inform us as to a person's readiness to receive help in Christian Science. The argument of these senses is. If you have the power to help that person, why don't you do it? People seldom stop to consider the conditions under which demonstration is humanly possible. (See Science and Health, p. 147.) This question is simply an appeal of the false human sympathy that is powerless to destroy either the suffering or the wrong thinking that is causing it. The wish to see sin and suffering destroyed is perfectly proper, but the next point to consider is the willingness of the individual to have it done in God's own way, by surrendering his faith in all lower means.
"Ask, and ye shall receive," is the dictum of Scripture. Is the patient who is under medical treatment and the care of physicians, asking for Christian Science? No, not so long as he believes he is doing what is right and has confidence in medicines; and even when his faith in such treatment is waning, he may not yet be ready for Christian Science, but will be attracted to some minor curative agency promising relief from pain but not from sin. The asking that receives is something more than words; it is "the heart's sincere desire," weary of the world and anxious to know and to do the will of God; it is the thought of sincerity and humility that seeks to be taught rather than to teach. Erring human influences may conspire to send people to Christian Scientists for help before they are prepared to receive it, under circumstances which practically preclude the possibility of perfect healing. It is, therefore, the province of the practitioner to judge as to the readiness of the individual to receive the help asked, for. Very often he is advised to wait until he is ready to turn with undivided thought to Christian Science. "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart," — these are not idle words. They mean singleness of purpose, a willingness to forsake matter for Spirit, a determination to "have no other gods before me."
Faith in God means faith in God, good, only. It is wholehearted service that measures up to the true standard of seeking and finding. The apathetic, unenlightened thought may wonder why it cannot take medicine and have Christian Science treatment at the same time. A lady once appealed to a Christian Scientist for help, remarking that she was taking medicine, besides treating with an osteopath and a magnetic healer, all at the same time; and having heard that Christian Science was known to perform cures, she thought that she might progress faster to have its treatment along with the rest. When told that Christian Science did not harmonize with any material mode of treatment, she concluded that she would continue with what she had. Such instances only prove mortals' ignorance of Spirit and of its application to human needs.
"A house divided against itself shall not stand." Because the Christian Scientist has proved the truth of this saying, he can well afford to wait patiently for the opportune moment when the poor mortal is so tired of drugging that he will voluntarily discard material means and seek help from omnipotent Mind. The Master's counsel to his twelve apostles was to "go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" and not to the self-satisfied Gentile or Samaritan. Who are the lost sheep in our day and generation? Are they not those who have failed to find rest and peace in materiality, who realize their need of something higher and purer than the material senses can offer them, who can say with the apostle, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world"? Experience proves that it is not a difficult task to present the claims of Truth to such as these. They are the good soil in which the seed of Truth is allowed to grow and bring forth fruit.
The most orderly and lawful presentation of Christian Science is its demonstration in the healing of sin and disease. One single case of healing speaks louder than words in declaring and defining the power and presence of omnipotent good. Endowed with this practical understanding of the power and willingness of divine Love to heal and save mankind in this present age, what powerful and convincing sermons our missionaries would be enabled to preach to the hungering and thirsting souls in foreign lands, whether they could or could not converse with them in their own tongue. The waning interest in various theological schools and the deplorable indifference and apathy on the part of thousands of professing Christians, so frequently commented upon by the clergy, can readily be accounted for when it is remembered that the divinely authorized presentation of the truth which heals the sick without the use of any material agencies is not recognized, believed in, nor taught to be a present possibility by the various teachers and leaders of religious thought. More than this, students and members are too often warned to "have nothing to do with Christian Science," because it presumes to teach and practise Christian healing. It is sad indeed that the command to "heal the sick" should have been divorced from the Gospel of Christ in the minds of professing Christians, and that any man or woman who claims to love God and man should feel called upon to lend his or her influence to discourage others from thoroughly investigating a system of religious teaching which presents the Christ in such a clear, practical, and convincing light that the sick and sinful are physically, morally, and spiritually regenerated through the application of God's unchangeable law of Love, as demonstrated by the Master.
Through nearly forty years of fearless and patient Christian endeavor on the part of Mrs. Eddy, its revered Leader, Christian Science has won its way into the hearts and homes of thousands of the world's best people, who stand as living witnesses of the healing and redemptive power of divine Love. If its loyal followers do not lose sight of the practical, lawful, and orderly presentation of its claims, which have made possible such grand achievements in the first forty years of its history, who can say what another forty years of prayer and demonstration shall bring forth?
