The Way that is Best

Many have noticed how in one of his psalms King David expresses increasing confidence in God. First he says of the Almighty: “He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.” He goes on to say, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.” The word “wait” as here used means to be silent, to cease, to stand still; so the psalmist calls upon his inner sense to cease from mental contest with his enemies, to silence resentment, to stand still before God. Then he can repeat what he said before about God being his defense, or high place, but with added confidence; for he now says, “He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.”

It is not at all strange that the Leader of the Christian Science movement should have understood well the spiritual experience of the psalmist, and should have enriched it with her vision of the Christ. From what she proved in her own life she was able to be interpreter for mankind of spiritual experience, and hence reveals the basis for that trust in God which cannot be moved. This she explains in “Retrospection and Introspection” (p. 93) thus: “The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action.”

It is the characteristic of error to have no silence, no peace, but to make perpetual invasion upon the quiet lives and the useful and peaceful occupations of the men of good will in the world; for as Isaiah says, “Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood.” Ezekiel describes the invasion of a city, saying, “Thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, a men enter into a city wherein is made a breach;” so does it seem if one forgets that Mind is his defense, and allows the hordes of suggested thoughts to enter with their noise and confusion. David evidenced stages of recovery from the invasion of error in his case, saying first, “I shall not be greatly moved,” but ending with the actual realization, since he could emphatically say and know, “I shall not be moved.”

It is of highest import that every individual worker shall know how to win his victory in like manner when aggressive mental suggestions seem to surround his citadel—setting engines of war against the walls, and with axes striving to break down the towers. Just as the host of Ben-hadad fled from before Samaria, and when searchers “were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there,” so the cloud of false witnesses, the noisy arguments, distressing contention, irritating resentment, may all be dismissed. The one thing necessary is right action within, and that rests upon right attitude to God. Here again in the words of our Leader we find exact guidance, for Mrs. Eddy says in “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 267): “The predisposing and exciting cause of all defeat and victory under the sun, rests on this scientific basis: that action, in obedience to God, spiritualizes man’s motives and methods, and crowns them with success; while disobedience to this divine Principle materializes human modes and consciousness, and defeats them. Two personal queries give point to human action: Who shall be greatest? and, Who shall be best? Earthly glory is vain; but not vain enough to attempt pointing the way to heaven, the harmony of being. The imaginary victories of rivalry and hypocrisy are defeats. The Holy One saith, ‘O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river.'”

Our Master was appreciative because he valued the actual demonstration. One remembers well what he said about the widow’s offering of two mites, which together make only a farthing, and how he said of one whose offering was enriched by love, “She hath done what she could.” Paul was practical in this same matter, saying in regard to gifts, “It is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” Hence, for a man to reach his best requires no comparison of himself with others, but only his own decision within to wait on God, to silence human ambition, to cease from vainglory, to obey Love. Truly, the all-loving, all-knowing, all-acting divine Mind must know best, love best of all, act for the best. The obedient one, then, is not left to laborious self-maintenance, or to struggle with other contestants for supremacy. Out of all contests and strifes of tongues he is lifted. Disquieting rumors no more invade his peace; “he shall not be afraid of evil tidings.” He simply is not moved, since he knows goodness and greatness as one, and is obedient to both precept and example of the Master, of whom it was said that he “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Thus it is that intuition comes whereby Mrs. Eddy’s words in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 10) can be fully understood. In that Message she declares: “All that worketh good is some manifestation of God asserting and developing good. Evil is illusion, that after a fight vanisheth with the new birth of the greatest and best.”