IN our work as students and practitioners of Christian Science we are many times confronted with problems that seem so difficult to handle and so slow in yielding that we wonderingly ask ourselves whether our understanding of Truth is going to fail us. Many times before, our understanding has helped us to overcome belief in a power apart from God, whether the claim was one of sin or sickness, of lack or suffering in any form; but this particular case seems to baffle all our efforts. The tempter, mortal mind, may argue that perhaps, after all, this particular demonstration is too difficult for us, too far above the understanding we possess. And alas, we often give in to the temptation, instead of instantly rejecting these suggestions, knowing as we do that God's work has been, is, and shall remain perfect; that nothing therefore needs to be done by us in order to make it so; and that man as God's expression knows the truth and nothing but the truth. Not being alert, we perhaps altogether cease to work about the error in question, in the hope either that time may bring about the desired result, or that the understanding of some one else may be more equal to the task.
Would it not be more helpful to remember that God's children reflect God; that there never is any lack in what He bestows, but that seeming lack always is the result of our failure to accept what God gives us? Would it not be wiser to put all our trust in what we know of the revealed truth, rather than in the suggestions of the so-called carnal mind? This at least is what our beloved Leader tells us to do when she writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 410), "The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love." It is quite clear that Mrs. Eddy here points out that a wavering, blind faith cannot be the remedy for a difficult or an untoward condition. Neither does spasmodic ecstasy, apt as it is to alternate with doubt, discouragement, and even despair, attain the conviction which made Paul declare, "I know whom I have believed." But the teaching of Christian Science makes it possible for every one who is earnestly and prayerfully practicing this Science to reach the certainty to which Paul's words gave utterance.
Mrs. Eddy has clearly revealed God as the only cause and power, enabling us to know that only that which expresses this one and only divine cause—that which is its manifestation—is real. In this reality there is no sin, no sickness or death, no trouble, no lack, no separation, no suffering, no discord of any kind. All that is, is governed by God's law, is obedient to Him and expresses His wisdom and love. This understanding supplies the solution of all our seeming problems.
