The One Way ELLA W. HOAG, CSD          Two ways appear to present themselves to men in the walk through life. There is the straight and narrow way of divine Principle, demanding obedience to right, and there is the so-called broad and easy one wherein it is believed one may walk with comfort and pleasure, without care and without concern. Christians have for centuries proclaimed aloud the virtue of the first and the wrong of the second; but because of a lack of understanding of the nature of both, the teachings of the schools have fallen far short of definite instruction as to the manner of or the reasons for seeking the one or avoiding the other. While it is conceded by all that Jesus walked in the narrow way and declared that all who would live in obedience to God and so obtain heaven must follow him, human thought in its consent to an admixture of good and evil has lazily believed that the two paths could be in some way conjoined. Christian Science, however, shows conclusively that they can never really touch each other at any point. Being entirely different in purpose and in destination as well as in manner of progress, they diverge from the outset.          In Science and Health (p. 242) we read: “There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality — to have no other consciousness of life — than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses.” This defines the one perfect way so simply, so clearly, that none need ever again question its nature or how to find it. While Christian Scientists undoubtedly accept the truth of this definition, there still remains the necessity of proving their understanding of it by walking in this way. When one is quite convinced that this is indeed the path to heaven, it would seem the simplest thing imaginable to choose it always and always to walk in it.          To the human sense this, however, seems difficult, since the rule thus stated not only demands the acceptance of and obedience to the demands of divine Principle, but also involves the consequent recognition and rejection of all the claims of materiality. Because of this it appears to take time to learn to remain steadfastly in the path of righteousness. Many a side trip is made into the by-paths of what is denominated the broad and pleasant road — but this way, it should always be remembered, inevitably leads to destruction. It goes without saying, that it is only as divine Principle is understood and so seen as the alone desirable that there will be a sufficient earnestness of purpose to hold one ever to the exact, undeviating, but nevertheless all-loving way of Principle.          As we accept this way and traverse it, we see with ever increasing clearness that a constant guard must be kept lest blinded to the necessity of watchfulness we may misread some guidepost and so seem temporarily to lose the way. In “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 205) Mrs. Eddy writes, “Mortals who on the shores of time learn Christian Science, and live what they learn, take rapid transit to heaven, — the hinge on which have turned all revolutions, natural, civil, or religious, the former being servant to the latter, — from flux to permanence, from foul to pure, from torpid to serene, from extremes to intermediate.” Now this “from extremes to intermediate” is a wonderful aid to a correct discernment of the difference between the right and the wrong way. The right way is ever calm, unfaltering, perfect. Since the wrong is entirely outside of and apart from Principle it is without law, without fixity, without stability, without any right guidance. Since it has neither foundation nor security, it is always unstable and is ever flying from one extreme to the other. Confronted with its own false claims in one direction it is forced to seek refuge in an opposite, where its claims to reality and satisfaction are again uncovered and proved powerless by the steady power of Truth which moves on unchanged in the intermediate way.          For example, suppose the endeavor to walk in the straight way of Principle has uncovered the falsity of contemplating existence from the standpoint of self-righteousness. Immediately there is the tendency to rush to the other extreme of self-depreciation. Now both self-righteousness and self-depreciation are arrogant claims to a false selfhood in matter, and are the extremes of the way of death; while just at hand is always the intermediate way of Principle, the way of Life, with its perfect presentation of the real, God-made, God-governed selfhood, in Spirit, not in matter. These extremes of error claim to be many, but the intermediate is always at hand, always present to deliver with its all-powerful truth from every false tendency; and the fuller the understanding of Principle the more quickly are the extremes of error detected and rejected and the intermediate seen and embraced. Thus may the one way be lived and demonstrated and the goal of heaven finally attained.   "The One Way" by Ella W. Hoag, CSD Christian Science Sentinel, January 24, 1920

 

| Home | Library |

Copyright © 1996-2010 CSEC