The World's Great Need LOUISE WHEATLEY COOK HOVNANIAN, CSB          Those parents who have children in the Christian Science Sunday school are often heard to say that they learn many a much needed lesson from their own little ones. The following true story will illustrate this. One Christmas day just about dusk a father and his eight-year-old boy were taking a walk together. Most of the houses they passed were already lighted, and through the windows they caught occasional glimpses of the brightness and good cheer within. The child gazed at it all in undisguised delight, but the father's heart was heavy. The family had just begun the study of Christian Science, and while the children were making rapid progress as the result of attendance at the Christian Science Sunday school, the older members of the household seemed to be advancing more slowly in their struggle toward the light. A financial problem yet weighed heavily upon the father's shoulders, so much so that when the boy suddenly called attention to an unusually beautiful Christmas tree in one of the luxurious homes which they were passing, the father responded rather bitterly: "Yes, son, I see it. That little boy can have a fine Christmas tree because his father is rich. But we are poor."          The child stopped, and the very tall man and the very little boy stood quite still for a moment looking at each other. The rapturous expression slowly faded from the child's face and he looked almost puzzled. "Why, daddy," he said wonderingly, "you don't mean that, do you? How can we be poor when we have Truth and Love?" He then took his father's hand again and went jumping along as before, looking in at the windows and trying to keep step with his father's longer strides, evidently perfectly satisfied that the whole question had been settled. Truly, great was the Master's wisdom when he once "called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them," and said that only such could enter the kingdom! With tears in his eyes and emotion in his voice the father afterward told of his gratitude for the unconscious rebuke and how it had helped to lift the veil from his eyes that he might, through the aid of the child, gain a clearer vision of the Christ.          Perhaps there are others to whom the argument is coming that they, too, are poor this year as never before, not necessarily in that which is termed money, but in something far more essential to their happiness. They may be thinking that they lack something today which they have always had before, something dear and precious beyond words, and without which they feel poor indeed. If any such should chance upon these lines, let him take courage from the heaven born wisdom of that baby sage, "How can we be poor when we have Truth and Love?" How can anyone be poor who has found God? How can anyone long continue to be sad or alone or friendless or heart hungry when he once understands the truth about God and man, as Christian Science reveals it? In this clearer glimpse of the realities of being there is help for all, even in that hour when the heart cries out for "the touch of a vanished hand," and refuses to be comforted. "Oh, may you feel this touch," writes Mrs. Eddy, a woman who knew beyond all other women the world's great need; and she continues (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 306), "It is not the clasping of hands, nor a loved person present; it is more than this: it is a spiritual idea that lights your path!"          This spiritual idea, this angel guide that illumines the darkest places in human experience, shows us that all ideas of God, being inseparable from Him, must also be inseparable from each other. Though a dear one may be far beyond our sight, yet those spiritual qualities which ever constituted the real man still remain, and always will remain, the expression of his true individuality. What is it that we love and long for? Is it matter? We know it is not. We know that it was not flesh and blood and bones which endeared that one to us, but rather those mental characteristics which make lovely and loveable, — all that was expressed which was good and true and clean and fine and joyous and brave. Are these things ever in matter? And if not, if they are reflections of Spirit from which all good comes, can man ever be separated from them?          When will the human sense of things cease to beat its wings against the prison walls of its own false beliefs? When shall we cease our futile struggles for happiness through and because of matter, to find the unspeakable peace of a life "hid with Christ in God"? On page 322 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our Leader says: "The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life in divine Science. Without this process of weaning, 'Canst thou by searching find out God?'" And yet to find God is the world's great need.          When the sun is shining and earth's pathway seems carpeted with flowers, we do not always remember this; but today as never before humanity is reaching out for something higher and better and more satisfying than it has ever known. Humanity is waking up and beginning to think. In this testing time of each nation's history old things are passing away, all that is false and insubstantial is melting in the fervent heat of purifying fires. Then let us rejoice, even in the midst of tribulation. What a wonderful thing it will be when a sin sick and weary world shall some day discover, when all is over and "the tumult and the shouting dies," that it has found God!   "The World's Great Need" by Louise Wheatley Cook Hovnanian, CSB Christian Science Sentinel, September 14, 1918

 

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