There is scarcely a person on earth who does not expect that some day there will be a betterment of present conditions. In spite of the prevalence of crime, disease, sorrow, and manifold other disasters, hope remains undefeated, and one asks himself, What deep reason underlies an optimism that triumphs over so many reverses and survives so much despair? The answer is that hope has a definite, albeit dimly comprehended, reason or law, while despair is devoid of reason; that no divine law underlies despondency, whereas hope forms one of that inspired triad, "faith, hope, love" (Rev. Ver.), to which Paul refers. Hope is in a measure related to spiritual sense, and every time mortal thought gropes in search of an unseen God, and experiences through prayer a renewal of hope and consolation, it means that the hem of a great healing Principle has been touched, a Principle which will ultimately bring deliverance from evil to the entire human race. Hope is spiritual; despair materialistic. Hope dawns in faith, and merges through Christian Science into the progressive realization of that perfect intelligence which inspires and justifies all true hoping, namely, God, or divine Love.
Is not every mortal inwardly convinced that the confusion, the suffering, the injustice which we encounter in human existence, indicate but an unsolved problem? What a terrible tangle of thought the child's slate presents as with blurred eyes he stares at the figures that will not come right! Yet any arithmetician could quickly detect the mistakes, erase each false figure and substitute the correct one. The fundamental error in human calculation is the acceptance of evil in the name of good, ostensibly in order "that good may come of it," and this initial error permeates the sum total of mortal experience. The promise in Revelation, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," implies something more than the passing of sorrow; it signifies that spiritual understanding, gained here on earth, is destined to lift the veil from a densely materialistic conception of life, and reveal its eternal harmony, unmarred by any belief in evil.
Many persons look for good only in what they term the "future" life. This deprives them of present harmony, for it centers thought on death as a release from all ills. If it were not for this misleading belief, mortals would undoubtedly struggle out of untoward conditions with greater energy of purpose and determination, for this expectation of release through death is causing thousands of sufferers to yield to their ills rather than to overcome them. Yet the Bible refers to death as an "enemy," albeit "the last" to be "overcome," and we read in Science and Health (p. 426) that "sin brought death, and death will disappear with the disappearance of sin." Sickness and sin will vanish from the earth before the light of Truth, and spiritual understanding holds the secret of release from all evil.
There are other persons whose hope centers in the present, but they, on the other hand, are building on the sand of human opinion, medical lore, or surgical skill, upon climate, hygiene, diet, or even on some occult system. Such hopes as these are illusive, and little better than the legendary will-o'-the-wisp, for they lead mortals into the bleak and waste region of false belief, where no permanent solace is to be found. In the Christian Science text-book (p. 298) we read, "When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat." This "real" stands for that which is wholly spiritual, wholly" harmonious, and individuals experience this reality and this harmony in the exact ratio in which the faulty, outworn views of life have been detected as unreal and honestly abandoned.
The health and happiness noticeable in the ranks of Christian Scientists are fast becoming proverbial, and these harmonious conditions are all the more significant when it is learned that many of those healed were formerly reckoned among the most hopeless of earth's sufferers. Whence, then, come their renewed vitality, their vigor, their joy? They come from the fount from which only sweet waters flow, the fountain of divine Love, that has flowed into their consciousness and borne away all their fear, and with it all their suffering. Is there any individual more truly to be pitied than one who has bravely "hoped against hope," yet who finally, after years of suffering, has yielded to despair and owned himself overpowered either by disease or sin? To such as these Christian Science holds out a helping hand, and it is to be remarked that the very first step towards recovery lies in the renewal of hope.
The old saying that "man's extremity is God's opportunity," is being proven true in thousands of instances. This saying must not, however, be construed into meaning that God waits to help a human being until that individual finds himself reduced to the very last extremity; on the contrary, God is eternally "a very present help in trouble;" but a dense materiality has invaded religious sense, so that every other remedial agency is usually resorted to before the simple one of Truth is found and confided in. Hence God's readiness to bless is met by men's unreadiness to be blessed in God's way. Imagine the feelings of some tormented invalid, who has over and over again heard from the lips of earnest medical men that his case is hopeless, when a Christian Science practitioner comes to the bedside and gently dispels despair by pointing out that the only power which is omnipotent, namely, that spiritual power of God before which all medical law fades into nothingness, has not yet been called into requisition, and that it is actually here at hand for him to make use of in his great need.
The sufferer and his friends may very possibly point out that they have resorted to prayer all along; but have they not at the same time doubted God's intention to heal, or else their own worthiness to be restored to health? The dominant thought of the Christian Scientist is the allness of good, and the fact of the absolute impartiality of divine Life and Love,—an impartiality that finds a parallel in the rays of the sun, which shine with even warmth and radiance from their center. Furthermore, have these invalids not mingled with their faith in God the hope that a change of climate, diet, or medical treatment might be the means of saving them? The old argument that Spirit heals by means of these agencies is not a convincing one, nor one upon which Jesus relied in his ministry or recommended to his followers. Omnipotence needs no support from material agencies, and Christian Science makes its appeal to the patient's thought alone, leading it to be "absent from the body, and present with the Lord"—present with Spirit, as its Saviour.
When fear is discarded and dread overcome through confidence in God, and when gratitude for this new recognition of Love reigns in the patient's thought, he is well on the road to that mental regeneration which ultimates in recovery; but so long as mortals continue to look upon evil as every bit as real as good, and as in a measure divine because it is believed to be sanctioned by God, so long will human hopes prove a "cheat." A theory of this kind causes mortals to rest upon their oars, waiting for God to bring about the much needed change "in His own good time," as the saying is. The Scriptures tell us that God is He "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning;" hence it is we who have to change and to rise above evil by learning to look upon it as a deceiver whose reign will only draw to a close when Truth has unmasked all its subtleties and given us such an understanding of spiritual law as will enable us to set to work to conquer this material lie with intelligence and the previous conviction of victory. "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." What we term the human mind can only evolve out of its own imperfections an imperfect sense of law, productive of imperfect results; whereas spiritual law draws thought up to the very mainspring of hope and harmony, and its blessings are realized in proportion as the individual patiently and trustfully eradicates from his mentality all that is unlike God, good.
Jesus came representing the power of Truth to banish an illusion, much as one might picture a wise and loving elder brother leading a little frightened child to the empty space where she believes a ghost to be in hiding. Jesus came to heal the world of fear, and Christian Science is carrying on his mission. The ghost before which all humanity is quaking is "evil," and it is a phantom which has never, in the reality of being, occupied a moment of time nor an atom of space, since God has never been less than All-in-all. Mrs. Eddy says that "to understand God strengthens hope, enthrones faith in Truth" (Science and Health, p. 446). True, abiding hope rests on reason, and that is why a Christian Scientist is ready to give to every man the reason of the hope that is in him. Human belief has attempted to thread its way up to a contradictory God by whom good and evil are believed to be sanctioned. Is it not perfectly reasonable to admit that, as in the case of mathematics, whose principle provides for no mistakes, God's perfect reckonings include no evil? Little by little, humanity will yield up its concept of a human and variable God and rise to the recognition of the Godlike man who has never fallen from his spiritual estate.
It is impossible to succeed in Christian Science without a sense of humility akin to that of Jesus, who said, "I can of mine own self do nothing;" "but with God all things are possible." Hope is strong and unshakable in Christian Science because it is founded on the clearer realization of the fact that God is eternal Love. Hope no longer centers on climate or medical skill, upon personal intelligence or will, but it rises to its true inspiration in divine Love. Its secret is revealed in Christian Science, and thus hope becomes as certain and unfaltering as Love itself. Hope no longer rests upon the insecure basis of human achievement, knowledge, or authority, but on the unchanging, stable, eternal Principle, divine Love, which the Christian Science text-book reveals so clearly that thousands are enabled to demonstrate it for the benefit of earth's sufferers. None need suffer physical or moral anguish if they will but turn with full confidence to Truth and Love to enlighten and liberate them. Divine Love, or Principle, never inflicts suffering, because it has never made suffering necessary. God's righteousness can only be reached by careful and persistent effort to mold and chisel character, strengthen its base and soften its angularitis, so that each individual may become a living witness to the fact that divine Love directs his every thought and action.
Were it not for the fact that every desire for regeneration, every faithful struggle against temptation, is traceable to God, the divine Mind, human thought would recoil with dismay at the mental ground to be covered before the "promised land" or heavenly harmony is reached, yet humility can put even this fear to flight. Mrs. Eddy says, "Human language can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what exists" (Science and Health, p. 520), but that infinitesimal part has already brought health and peace to thousands, who are dropping burdensome beliefs and working out their salvation with a hope which soars higher and stronger as it centers more and more unreservedly upon divine Love, until at last it is merged into spiritual understanding, whereby "the substance of things hoped for" is gained and forever retained.
