Mothers In Israel

THE book of Ruth is well beloved of Bible students for the lessons it teaches of unselfishness, loyalty, gentleness, tenderness, humility, patience, and gratitude — qualities that were expressed in such generous measure by this Moabitess and her mother-in-law, Naomi.

In thoughtfully studying the record that its lessons might be applied to present-day needs, one student realized that because Ruth’s consciousness was so filled with love, this divine quality was reflected in her surroundings soon after she had suffered a grievous human experience. It was noted that she did not allow a lingering and mesmeric habit of bemoaning her fate to fasten itself upon her, nor did she magnify the sad circumstances of her widowhood or the lonely sense of being in a strange country without kindred or supply.

Her first thought was to comfort another. Love was teaching her the divine art of healing. It also enabled her to discern the spiritual qualities in Naomi’s character; and in these ways her thought was prepared to turn from the false sense of personal sorrow and follow the one God, divine Love, wherever He might lead. Ruth’s simple faith and loving compassion were shown in her touching answer to Naomi, who had counseled her to return to her former associates in the land of her birth. She said, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”

An understanding of the one God, divine Love, has healed many struggling with the belief of conflict in their home problems. They have found freedom and comfort in the same spiritual sense of love which was manifested by Ruth when she said, “Thy people shall be my people”. It is only evil belief that claims to separate God’s children. This evil belief is one of the most prolific sources of human discord, and it should be regarded not so much as a personal problem involving certain related individuals, as an opportunity which evil uses to vaunt its so-called power to create inharmonious conditions. Looked upon from the standpoint of Christian Science, it becomes clear that seeds of strife and separation do not come from God, infinite good; and one who seeks the harmony that always results from spiritual understanding, refuses to nourish any such subtle suggestion of error’s sowing.

Following where Love led, Naomi and Ruth, finding each other in the one Father-Mother God, arrived at Bethlehem. Here Boaz, a kinsman of Naomi’s husband, became the human instrument for divine Love’s provision for them, restoring to the experience of these two spiritually-minded women a renewed sense of love, home, and abundance.

In the light of the truth set forth by Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Ruth’s experience will be seen, not as merely an unusually fortunate group of incidents, but as the operation of the law of Love, a demonstration of the truth (p. 17) that “Love is reflected in love.”

Ruth and Naomi were blessed in their unselfed consideration for each other and in their earnest effort to express love; and by the translation of these right thoughts into acts, all their needs were met. More than this, the seed of right thinking nourished by Ruth, this type of “a mother in Israel,” was carried on through her great grandson, David, and successive generations. The multiplying of the consciousness of good continued through succeeding centuries, carrying with it spiritual understanding and consequent power over erroneous conditions, and finally manifesting itself in the conception of the Messiah by Mary. Christ Jesus expressed the highest human concept of Godlikeness. He overcame the belief of life in matter and its results — sin, disease, and death — and proved himself to be the perfect example for all time.

Bible students know that Israel was the name given to Jacob after he had wrestled with false belief, and spiritual sense had prevailed in his thinking. The word “Israel” then became a name denoting the spiritual character not only of one individual, but later of a people, and was synonymous with the God-anointed or spiritually-minded of future ages, namely, those who understood and demonstrated an understanding of the Love that is God.

In our day, Mary Baker Eddy suffered not only the human sense of widowhood, but also the loss of child, of health, and of financial resources. With her, as with Ruth, there was a whole-hearted turning to God, a yearning to know Him better, that through the spiritual understanding of divine Love she might learn how to comfort others; how to teach them the divine and therefore scientific and demonstrable method of destroying sin; how to heal the diseases and woes of humanity through reflecting the Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus.” We know little of the earnest striving and constant diligence that must have kept the beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science on the way to “the land of Christian Science, where,” as she writes in Science and Health (pp. 226, 227), “fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged.”

We know little of the journey of Ruth and Naomi out of the land where they had suffered bereavement and loss. But noting the human footsteps taken in their demonstration of supply, we see that the most significant step in their experience was the recognition of the spiritual nature of true abundance, revealed through right ideas. We see also that an appreciable advance out of the belief of loss and lack to a consciousness of abundance was brought about through a willingness to demonstrate the humility and patience necessary for daily gleaning.

Gleaning may be defined as gathering assiduously with constant diligence . Human nature is apt to look upon the evidence of abundance with a tinge of envy, instead of recognizing the patient striving that is usually an important factor in bringing about the destruction of the evil belief of lack, whatever form this belief may seem to take.

We are quite willing to be blessed, but are often reluctant to fit ourselves to receive the blessing. Mere material riches do not bring happiness. Yet plenty, that gracious word which signifies enough, without waste or stint, and which, applied to human needs, means health, loving companionship, harmonious surroundings, freedom from worry, a life filled with joy, gratitude, willing and loving service, is the rightful heritage of every child of God. To lay hold of this heritage, then, we should endeavor to love more; patiently and diligently accumulate the good seed of right thoughts, which always lead to right activity of the most practical nature; cast out of consciousness the chaff of evil beliefs, and thus find ourselves in possession of the substance of the “daily bread” the Master gave to the world to meet all human needs, and to which he referred in the Lord’s Prayer. A spiritual understanding of this prayer as interpreted by our revered Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in the first chapter of the Christian Science textbook (pp. 16, 17), brings a realization of true abundance that points the way to a practical working out of our problems. Spiritual desires will be found unfolding in ways and through means whereby they may be expressed; and this expression or action in turn supplies the human needs. Each one making the effort to realize the truth finds himself rising into a higher and holier consciousness of the abundance of good.

Such tangible evidence once experienced by an honest seeker for Truth gives him courage and hope. The proof is so irrefutable that never again will the alert student permit himself to be tempted to accept the belief that loss, lack, or discordant conditions are real and God-made or divinely permitted. Never again will false material beliefs be accepted as inevitable or as having to be stolidly or painfully endured. One must be watchful that self-pity, self-love, self-justification, and such like evils, do not gain entrance to his thinking and become objectified in erroneous conditions. These discords are proved to be unreal by refusing to permit their suggestive whispers to enter and lodge in thought. One thus consciously uses his divine right to keep his thinking pure, reflecting God. And he remembers with gratitude and love the proofs of the abundant rewards of following where Love leads.