“Through Faith We Understand”

There is a marked correlation between the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, which deals primarily with faith, and the opening paragraph of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, in which she states, “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.”

Through common usage the meaning of the word “faith,” like so many other figures of speech by means of which spiritual ideas are conveyed to human consciousness, has become materially corrupted. Mrs. Eddy therefore employs the qualifying adjective “absolute,” in order to restore to the meaning of the word “faith” its proper value; and thus she distinguishes it from the lower sense of the term in which it is used as a synonym for mere belief. With this clarified sense of faith, the definition of it as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” becomes vastly more significant. It is through this living faith, the writer to the Hebrews tells us, “we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

Failing to appreciate the necessity of this essential quality of faith in their so-called scientific researches, the wise men of the world ignore the divine method of interpretation, and seek the explanation of all natural phenomena through material observation and reasoning. It was obviously this misdirected use of the physical senses and of the human intellect, on the part of the Jews, which called forth from Jesus that incisive rebuke, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” These words of the most successful practitioner of spiritual healing who has ever appeared on earth, contain the very keynote of Christian Science. As an illustration of this Mrs. Eddy writes under the marginal notation, “Mind’s true camera,” in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p.264): “Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind?”

The point of divergence, therefore, between Christian Science and all material ways and means of gaining a truer knowledge of existence, lies simply in this, that the former adheres strictly to the monotheistic Principle in its judgment of human affairs; while the latter admit two powers—good and evil—as equally true. Mrs. Eddy’s teachings, when properly applied, supply an absolute faith in the potentiality and goodness of God and of His creation, thus denying the actuality of all appearance of evil, however realistic it may seem. What is termed the human or mortal mind, on the contrary, accepting in its premises the belief that both good and evil possess an equal measure of reality, denies in practice that God is good and is the only creator. Is not mortal existence, therefore, when seen in its true light, a false sense of existence, a state of self-deception, or, in the words of Scripture, the fruit “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”?

Cosmogonists, who make it their business to explain the origin of the material universe, tell us that ages ago our world was composed of seething gases which in time cooled on the surface into rock and water. Biologists, in turn, have set themselves the task of discovering the genesis of life and of all the phenomena, on the earth and in the waters, to which that term applies. Both have pursued their investigations in the realm of matter, and have assumed that by so doing they were basing their observations on first-hand evidence. In the light of Christian Science, it is apparent that the problems of cosmogony and biology have already been solved in the only way possible,—through the inspired teachings of the Scriptures,—and that the declaration that “the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear,” is the key to the origin and meaning of all of the real creation.

In accordance with the Scriptural conception of the Logos, or Word of God, as the only genuine cause and creator, the practitioner of Christian Science is obliged to be constantly on the alert so as not to be deceived by the false evidence of the physical senses. He finds, however, that a mere knowledge of the letter of metaphysical truth, unsupported by its spirit, is inadequate to destroy this false evidence, and so reform the sinner and heal the sick. In order to acquire more of the Christ-spirit and do the greater works predicted by Christ Jesus, there must be a purer and more childlike faith in the inherent capacity of one’s true self and of all for spirituality.

The natural consequence of this stronger faith in the underlying perfection of being must necessarily be a corresponding reduction of belief in all the paraphernalia designed to establish health and happiness on a material basis. The process of accrediting to God the fullness of power that belongs to Him cannot be accomplished successfully if done only when it happens to be to one’s personal advantage; but it must be done unselfishly and for the main purpose of seeking to reestablish the true way for Truth’s sake alone. Mrs. Eddy has made this plain in the following luminous passage from “Miscellaneous Writings” (p.185): “Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness.”

Could there possibly be any higher aim or end than that outlined in the foregoing passage? And can there be any other correct way of obtaining a true understanding of that Life which is immortal? Surely it is clear that an undivided or absolute faith in God and man, as perfect and inseparable, is the substance of all we should ever ask or hope for. Its fruits are even now appreciable, in some measure, in the form of improved human conditions and purer ideals, although the exact opposite might seem to be true if one were to accept the false testimony of the personal senses. This is surely the evidence of true faith, which our great Way-shower demanded when he established the test, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”