The Word Declared

IN the second book of Esdras, one of the Apocryphal writings of the Old Testament, there is found this beautiful prophecy: “For evil shall be put out, and deceit shall be quenched. As for faith, it shall flourish, corruption shall be overcome, and the truth, which hath been so long without fruit, shall be declared.”

Glancing backward over the centuries, weighing cause and effect in the history of Christianity, the thinker to-day may discern with this isolated Esdras that the truth “hath been so long without fruit;” but that whensoever and wheresoever it has been declared, fruit has been borne. The first great national declaration of the truth was given to the children of Israel in that formulated statement known as the Decalogue. Moses perceived enough of the Truth of being to know that obedience to the law of God is man’s only way of salvation, but his people, perhaps, could bear no more than the “Thou shalt not” which, through its law of exclusion, leads thought gradually to love the better way. From the clearness of Moses’ vision sprang these formulated commandments which are indeed truth declared, for that time and all time, in that they set forth the mode of conduct which alone leads to a knowledge of Christ, Truth.

Following Moses, there came the long line of leaders and prophets, emphasizing, in their degree of understanding, the truth about man, and crying out against the teachings, the customs, and the sins of their times; recognizing, one and all, that a fact must be declared, to be established, and working to that end through denunciation, encouragement, exhortation, rebuke, exalted example, praise, and prophecy. Isaiah describes this divine announcement as “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness” and says furthermore, “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, . . . O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.” David in his Psalms implores, “Keep not thou silence, O God.” This king of Israel stood sublimely in the assurance that “He will speak peace unto his people,” and declares, “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” In the book of Isaiah we read, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

After the advent of the Master, whose whole life was a continuous unfolding of the “Word of God,” Luke, his disciple, declares that “his word was with power;” and the beloved John makes the crowning statement,—”The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Paul leads thought to the effect of the declared Word, in writing to the Hebrews, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” In fact, the Scriptures from beginning to end unfold the value of the applied Word of God; from the “God said,” of Genesis, to the picture in Revelation of him that is “called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war, and his name is called The Word of God.”

A fact of great import to mankind is met with just here, to wit, the adaptability of this Word of God to the affairs of men to-day. With the exception of the most devout Christian lives, mankind in general has relegated the Word of God to remote ages. Whatever God may have done in the past, matters of to-day are supposed to be left to so-called natural law, and to the supervision of the men and women involved in them, and the Word of God is considered not available, or is not remembered until every human agency has failed.

Upon this nineteenth-century scene a woman has entered, —one who discerned the whole truth of being, as demonstrated by the Master, Jesus of Nazareth,—the woman who perceived the value of divine utterance, and who has had the heaven-born courage to utter the truth as she has seen it. Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” presumes not to add to the Word of God, but testifies to its presence, its power, its availability to meet the sore needs of men; sets in motion, if such expression may be used, the activity of this “Word” by urging the children of men to think it, to speak it, to understand it, to love it, to live it. The book sets forth such a clear explanation of this age-abiding Word, that a “Key to the Scriptures” is indeed afforded. The first effect of Mrs. Eddy’s book, in many households, is to bring an unused Bible from its resting-place, and send a family searching through its pages, eager to find its Word of Life a living reality for to-day.

Every heart wherein good is ascendant, longs for the time when evil shall “be put out, and deceit quenched;” that faith “shall flourish” and that “corruption shall be overcome,” and every such heart rejoices that the time foreseen by this prophetic Esdras is at hand; that time when “the truth, which hath been so long without fruit, shall be declared.” The advent of Christian Science declares again that the truth which bore its fruit in the life of the Founder of Christianity, rouses human thought from its faith in a dormant, unused “Word” to a practical, intelligent utterance of that which heals and redeems.

One of the first things asked of the sufferer who turns his attention to Christian Science, is that he shall declare the truth and refuse to voice error. He may understand very little of this in his first effort, and perhaps may demur when the subject is presented to him. But if he is obedient, if he begins to utter the Word of God which opposes the testimony of material sense, he will find this declared Word dislodging and demolishing the accumulated thinking of materiality, with all its effects. This process may not at first be understood, but if it be undertaken, it will, one thought at a time, undo the mental methods of error and establish in individual thought the stately operations of the Christ-Mind. This is true for the reason that thought of some kind precedes every action and condition; and the quality of the thought decides the nature of the external manifestation. The thinking which has bred discomfort and disease must be abandoned, when Christly standards are adopted, and the only way to discard it is to put something better in its place. Hence, Christian Science urges that an exchange be made, thought for thought, statement for statement, and words of truth substituted for the “former conversation” of the fleshly mind. When Truth is well understood and loved, this is no toilsome task, for the knowledge of the power and presence of God springs readily into thought and speech. But in the hours when right thinking is not spontaneously present, the beginner must needs bring to bear upon himself all possible discipline by training thought into obedience to the highest and best he knows. To this end it is often valuable to enthrone in one’s mind and heart the written statements of the Word of Truth, and to utilize them by holding in memory Bible texts, and sentences found in Science and Health, which declare the omnipresence and omnipotence of Him “who keepeth Israel.” When the suppositional forces of error, by some sharp attack, so scatter individual thought that confusion and disaster seem probable, and clear understanding seems for the moment to have fled, some well-known and well-loved text becomes a rock of refuge, and affords at once that mental steadiness which redeems the situation, and turns the tides of thought toward the eventual proving of the supremacy of good. Many, many times does the student of Christian Science find himself leaning upon the 91st Psalm or the “scientific statement of being” (p. 468 of Science and Health), and being lifted thereby to a clearer sense of the power of God to redeem and rescue His own. The Word of God is not a formula, not something to be confined in a sentence or a paragraph. But in hours of assault or temptation a beloved text becomes a stepping-stone to that higher altitude of thought which reveals God as near at hand, and a ringing declaration from the text-book of Christian Science is a battle-axe with which to fell the suggestions of evil. Thus may the Word of God be declared literally, and bear its fruit.

It is a very simple situation. At the moment when a declaration of the truth has possession of an individual’s thought, the erroneous opposing suggestions can find nothing upon which to stand. A false suggestion must be mentally accepted ere it can pose as reality or power, and the consciousness which is glowing with the activity of Truth, declared and understood, offers no foothold to error.

Much time and effort are wasted in the fruitless plans of the human will, in the incessant search for material reasons and personal causes, and in the doubt, fear, uncertainty, regret, speculation, comparisons, and limitations of the common habits of thought. The weary hours spent in such friction and turmoil may be transformed into seasons of peace and gladness, if thought is disciplined to relinquish such turning and overturning, and to declare, with simplicity and persistence, the absolute truth. Such self-control brings the fruit of declared truth in a purified heart, a chastened will, a sounder judgment; and thus “evil shall be put out” and “deceit shall be quenched.” “As for faith, it shall flourish,” and “corruption shall be overcome.” This simple process of thinking and speaking the right thing instead of the wrong thing, the truth instead of the error, opens the gates of thought toward heaven; the Word of God, if declared, enters the arena of human affairs to-day and is indeed God dwelling with men, to “wipe away all tears from their eyes.” God is Love; Love held in thought, spoken, lived, means God dwelling with men. Love forgotten, neglected, ignored, means a futile, fleeting dream of existence wherein God is not to be found.

So every quality of God is established with men as it is found, loved, understood, and kept active in daily thought and deed. God is always the same God, as available to one man as to another, but that man who keeps his thoughts bright with the activity of God-likeness, finds his God at hand more readily than does the man who lends his thoughts to the “moth and rust” of ungodliness. For thought makes the man what he is each day. So each man should strive to know himself as God knows him, and to cease thinking otherwise. Only of undeclared truth can it be said that it “hath been so long without fruit,” to man. Declared truth transforms the human deserts into gardens of gladness, and the wilderness way broadens into great fields of plenty.

To the genuine Christian Scientist, no situation is so severe that the Word of God cannot be uttered therein. Pressed into the very corner of adversity, hemmed in upon every side by the threats of evil, overwhelmed by the weight of fear, or failure, or sorrow, he has always his one refuge, —he can think truth, and in that thinking he can so reject the suggestions of evil, he can so declare the power and presence of his God, that his very persistence must externalize itself in the transforming of the situation and in the ultimate triumph of good.

No Godlike thought is lost, nor is it unavailing, and the man who remains unshaken in his allegiance to Godlike thinking, walks with a Saviour whose eventual conquest over every phase of sin, sickness, and death is a divine and absolute certainty.

Christian Science commands its student to work, to cease loitering, complaining, and doubting, and to bring the saving declarations of the truth into active duty every hour of the day. If but one thought of truth has been gleaned from study, that one thought must be cherished as a dear companion, and declared again and again. Such right mental activity will put to flight armies of evil suggestions, with all their attendant weariness and pain. The knowledge of Moses’ commandments, declared from generation to generation, has uplifted the moral standard of thousands of men, and saved them from the sins of a lower mental level. The knowledge of the New Testament teachings, declared to the world through centuries of Christian effort, has quickened the spirituality which would have lain dormant without such persistent repetition. And to this century, through the life of one holy woman, there has come a declaration of the truth which so clarifies the understanding of both Old and New Testament that its utterance does indeed put out evil, quench deceit, overcome corruption, and cause faith to flourish. Mrs. Eddy has set her message before the world. To those who heed it not, it bears no present fruit. To those who re-declare it in their own lives, it opens a highway of salvation, wherein they walk to the possession of that abundant understanding which follows faithful declaration. Unquestionably these are the ways of deliverance, and sin and pain and death must yield to the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.”