Differing Viewpoints ANNIE M. KNOTT, CSD         A study of the book of Acts and of the various epistles reveals the fact that considerable time and growth in grace were needed in order to reconcile the differing views of those who were at that day accepting Christianity. Not only did this apply to those of other nationalities who had believed in “gods many,” but even those who had been brought up in the Jewish faith and who had become Christians were not always agreed as to the best way of advancing the cause which they had espoused. This shows that we can never be in entire agreement with our fellow men until we understand and obey the one Mind, God, and then we shall be truly tolerant of what may seem to us the slow steps of others who have entered the path which leads from sense to Soul. We shall also be willing to apply to others as well as to ourselves our Leader’s counsel, given on page 485 of Science and Health, namely, “Emerge gently from matter into Spirit.”          In the second chapter of Galatians we read of a controversy between some of the early workers respecting circumcision, Paul even charging Peter with dissimulation and saying, “I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.” Happily, however, this incident did not rupture their brotherhood in Christ, for we read in Peter’s second epistle a touching tribute to his “beloved brother Paul,” in which he speaks of “the wisdom given unto him.” He adds that some of Paul’s epistles contained “things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” These two noble and fearless workers had therefore reached in large measure that “unity of the faith” and that “knowledge of the Son of God” of which Paul elsewhere writes.          The experience of the two apostles above cited is similar to that of many students of Christian Science today. They indeed come from the north and the south, the east and the west, to find their places in the kingdom of God, and this in a far more vital sense than a merely geographical one. Their mental viewpoints are therefore different until they rise above the plane of mortal belief and experience. The same statement does not for this reason mean the same thing to two persons who may be equally sincere in their desire to grasp the truth, that is, until both have progressed farther.          A case might be cited of a person who had received class instruction in Christian Science, and when a friend asked her about the teaching she replied that the chief thing she got was a wonderful sense of the all-power of divine Love. To this the friend responded that she feared the teaching had not been so thorough as it should have been; that it should have dealt more with the subtleties of mortal mind and the need of wrestling with them. The student was in consequence somewhat confused and discouraged, yet she felt that her greatest need had been met and that fuller understanding would surely come to her. Now it happened that another student in the same class complained that the teaching had been so drastic in relation to the need of constant watchfulness, and alertness in the use of spiritual weapons, that he felt tempted to give up Christian Science altogether if it demanded so much. It may be well to say here that each of these students advanced so as to hold clearer views of the demands of divine Principle with a correspondingly improved practice, and this is what we all need.          Before deciding that a brother’s statement of Science is faulty, would it not be well always to seek from the Bible and Science and Health a clearer view of the question involved, remembering that the real issue is often obscured by the poor medium of human language. Even where one is nearer right than the other, as is doubtless the case in many instances, the Master’s words to Peter may well be recalled and heeded. “What is that to thee?” also his command, “Feed my sheep.” As we seek and find the green pastures on higher levels, our one desire will be to encourage others to reach them, that we may rejoice together in seeing Truth no longer “through a glass, darkly,” but face to face.   "Differing Viewpoints" by Annie M. Knott, CSD Christian Science Sentinel, October 30, 1915

 

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