Chapter VI
WALKING BY FAITH
W. John Murray
The
Realm of Reality
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1922.
“The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God;
for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually
discerned.”
--1 Cor. 2:14
[64] One
cannot read the New Testament without
realizing how large a part the element of
faith played in the life and works of
Jesus. To one who appealed to him for
relief he replied, “Be it unto thee
according to thy faith.” To another
he said, “Thy faith hath saved
thee.” While to the woman who said,
“If I may but touch the hem of his
garment I shall be made whole,” he
answered: “Thy faith hath made thee
whole.” In all of these expressions
of the Master there is an evidence of
that which we are coming to believe so
strongly in these days of modern
psychology concerning the supreme
influence of thought upon the physical
organism.
Through
faith the mind rises above those morbid
conditions which make for depression and
consequent disease into that higher realm
of thought and action where the
impossible to sense [65] becomes the
possible to soul. Faith is that quality
of mind which, instead of scattering our
mental forces, concentrates hope and
feeling, expectation and imagination,
into a quartette of mental harmony which
makes for that perfect song of praise
which expresses itself in improved bodily
condition. It would be strange indeed if
this were not so, seeing that lack
of faith makes for lack of initiative and
arrested achievement. The innumerable
instances of the cure of disease where
the patient labored under the belief that
some infallible remedy was being used,
when the physician in attendance was
merely administering some harmless
concoction because he had reached the end
of his resources, are all proofs of the
remedial value of thought when lifted out
of the slough of despondency into the
more rarefied atmosphere of hope and
expectation.
It seems
almost superfluous in an intelligent age
to emphasize the value and necessity of
faith. One would think that the
well-authenticated cases of faith’s
workability all down through the ages
would be sufficient to justify its
scientific cultivation, but we have
deluded ourselves into the belief that
faith is like the color of our eyes; that
is, we are born with it, and hence we
have it naturally or we do not have it at
all, and no amount of effort will confer
it upon us. “I cannot force myself
to believe; I wish I could, for then I
might be happy. I envy those who have
such sublime faith, but I must be
shown,” says one who is trying,
when all other means have failed to get
[66] comfort and healing by spiritual
means. It might be well at the outset to
state that Faith, which is the seed of
the Spirit at work in the soil of the
soul, is like any other seed in the sense
that the less it is forced and the more
it is cultivated the better, We are
coming to realize that faith, which is so
natural to us in childhood that we
believe what is false as easily as we
believe that which is true, must be
elevated above the state of unquestioning
acceptance to the plane of pure reason
where it becomes that which is able to
give a scientific explanation of
itself.
The
childlike faith of the woman who touched
the hem of the Master’s garment
enabled her to appropriate the
blessing she sought, but it by no means
enabled her to confer similar blessings
on those who were in the same plight.
There is the faith which appropriates,
and the faith which demonstrates, and it
ought not to be difficult for us to
appreciate that the faith which
demonstrates is greater than that which
merely appropriates. One of the first
acts of an appropriating faith is the
willingness to be convinced, for where
there is no willingness to be convinced
there is no possibility of conviction,
and where there is no conviction there is
no construction. This applies to
mechanics and metaphysics alike. If we
cannot be convinced of a possibility in
mechanics we take no interest, and where
there is no interest there is no
investment, either of time or money; and
where there is no investment of these
necessary factors there is no profit, all
of which explains [67] how large a part
faith plays in what we call worldly
success, which after all is nothing more
nor less than faith rewarding itself.
Let us take
two men with an equal amount of capital
and with an equal desire to increase it.
One is willing to be convinced of the
value of a new discovery and listens with
patience to a description of its merits,
the other regards it all as a beautiful
but impractical vision. One invests and
makes a vision a possibility, the other
withholds his interest and investment and
remains at a financial standstill, if
indeed he does not deteriorate
financially. Jesus taught this in the
parable of the talents, which ought to be
taken to heart by every man who desires
to increase in the wisdom of God and in
the wealth of the world, for these are
not incompatible as some would have us
believe. When Solomon asked for wisdom
and understanding he got riches in
addition, for the one follows the other
as the furrow follows the plough. It is
where we ask for riches without wisdom or
understanding that the Law fails to work,
for we require wisdom and understanding
to keep riches as well as to get and
dispense them properly.
It is
somewhat difficult to determine whether
faith is emotional or intellectual until
we arrive at the conclusion that it is a
combination of these mental or spiritual
qualities. The highest form of faith is
that which exhibits itself in a blending
of unquestioning trust in the Law and an
intellectual perception of the
Law’s availability. We [68] have an
exhibition of this combination of
spiritual trust and intellectual
perception in the science of aviation.
All mechanical requirements having been
complied with, the aviator then trusts
himself of the supporting power of the
air to hold him above the earth. In the
physical world we see the steady increase
of faith as it progresses from the
grossly material up to the ethereal.
There was a time when man dared not
venture upon anything less solid than the
earth. Water was his enemy, for the
reasons that it afforded him no support
for his feet, but when his faith
conquered his fear water became one of
his most obedient and profitable
servants. That which yesterday threatened
to swallow him today carries him to lands
hitherto unknown and opens up prospects
undreamed of. Water alone would drown
him, but water plus faith increases his
possibilities. Man through faith
reconciled two of his former enemies,
fire and water, and through their
combined exertions he generated a new
force which, in a limited sense,
abolished time and space by enabling him
in a few days to reach a destination
which previously had required weeks or
months.
By bringing
water and fire into closer proximity
steam came into use, so that water and
fire were able to do infinitely more for
humanity together than they could ever do
alone. It was only a step from this to
the discovery and use of electrical
energy, by means of which the very air
does not become dominated, as some aver,
but utilized. These advances in the
progress of man from fear [69] to faith
show that with each step there has been a
steady ascent from the visible to the
invisible. We see it in the faith of the
primitive man who must needs overcome his
fear of water before he can trust himself
to remove his feet from terra firma. We
find it again in the faith of the modern
man who must conquer his fear of the
apparently non-supporting air before he
can trust himself to leave the ground.
Just as we can subsist longer without
solid food than we can without water, and
longer without water than we can without
air, so we can subsist longer without any
or all of them than we can without the
breath of Life which we did not
create.
If all
progress in the material world is the
result of the use of those finer forces
of nature, the further progress of the
race must depend upon its knowledge and
use of that greater force by means of
which all these other forces are
intelligently pressed into service.
Without thought the forces of nature
would be as inoperative to benefit
mankind as water would be powerless to
produce steam without fire. But thought
that is merely mental motion, and not
scientifically directed, is like steam
blowing off through a safety valve. What
is needed today is Thought operating in
accordance with Principle, not principle
as we commonly use this word, but
Principle in the sense of Causation. If a
sham medicine without any therapeutic
value whatsoever can effect a cure where
other medicines endorsed by the medical
[70] fraternity have failed, we want to
know what the mental factor is which
produces the desired result, and the only
answer is that the disease is either a
sham or the remedial agent is a mental
quality, which we call faith.
That
so-called incurable diseases are being
cured by spiritual science cannot be
denied; therefore it is important to
understand whether it is the faith of the
patient in spiritual science which
produces the cure, or the understanding
of the practitioner; or if it is not
rather the union of these factors brought
together in an intense focus. A patient
comes to spiritual science, having
exhausted the powers of his family
physician, and also the skill of the
specialists who have been called for
consultation. It is not reasonable to
suppose that such a patient has more
faith in the spiritual scientist, whom
perhaps he has never met before, than he
has in his physician whom he knows and
trusts, and yet it is not infrequent for
such cases to be healed.
What is the
explanation? Here we find a patient who
either turns to spiritual science to
please his family, or because he has
reached the place where he is willing to
try anything, no matter how seemingly
absurd it appears. Beyond being willing
to be treated or prayed for he knows
nothing at all about the subject. One of
the first requirements is a test of his
faith, or rather a change in the
direction of his faith. It is astonishing
how difficult it is for us to give up
material remedies, notwithstanding we
have grown steadily worse [71] under
their administration, and it is for this
reason that many physicians who have long
abandoned their reliance upon them,
either for themselves or their families,
feel obliged to prescribe some harmless
thing, which, while it has no remedial
value, has no injurious effect. They
assert that they do this because their
patients would not feel that anything was
being done for them if they were not
“taking medicine.” And, to
the great surprise of the physician, they
often get well. In such cases it is their
faith which makes them whole, and this
ought not to be wondered at, since it is
the natural consequence of the operation
of mental law in the physical body.
Would it not
be better, instead of resorting to such
practices, to study this law of mental
healing so that the physician on such
occasions could instruct the patient in
the use of his own spiritual faculties?
Such physicians as are doing this are
meeting with astonishing success. Not
long ago I heard of a case of so-called
incurable cancer healed by a surgeon here
in New York who is a student of Divine
Science. One of his patients who had
suffered greatly was induced to have an
X-ray examination, and the conditions
were found to be such that an operation
would only have occasioned needless
suffering, inasmuch as everything seemed
to be involved. Without telling his
patient how very serious his case was,
and realizing that nothing could be
accomplished from a material point of
view, he kept his patient’s
confidence and began to treat or pray for
him with [72] the result that a later
examination showed decided
improvement.
One of the
first requirements of Divine Science
should be that the patient give up his
material methods, at least while he is
under treatment, so that when the cure is
established he will know what brought it
about, and thus be not only physically
healed, but intellectually convinced that
“God is an everpresent help in time
of trouble.” Just as the primitive
man had to leave the land before he could
derive the real benefit from the water
and test its power to support him, and
just as the aviator must leave the ground
before he can prove the sustaining power
of the air, so the soul must rise above
its dependence on matter before it can
prove to the fullest extent the healing
power of Divine Mind. Expecting benefits
from Divine Mind while afraid to give up
our drugs, we shall vacillate between one
extreme and the other until we come to
realize that the God Who created us can
recreate us, and this without any
material assistance whatever.
There is no
satisfaction comparable to the feeling
that “He Who forgiveth our
iniquities healeth also our
diseases.” To be healed of a bodily
malady by the power of true prayer, and
this without a single material remedy, is
to see God in the healing of our flesh.
It is to be grateful, not only for the
fact that we are healed, but for the
discovery that the Mind which brought us
into being may be safely relied upon to
correct our imperfections. There are
those who, before they came [73] to
Divine Science, used material remedies
almost daily for one reason or another,
but who now and for years past have
enjoyed better health than ever before,
and this through a radical reliance on
the God of all health. Is it not
reasonable to suppose that the Mind which
moves the planets can move the internal
organs of man? Should it be thought a
thing incredible that the Mind which
formed man can transform
him physically, as well as reform
him morally? Can that Divine Law which
makes for the circulation of pure air in
its own universe not be depended upon to
re-establish harmonious circulation in
the human organism?
These are
not impertinent questions, it seems to
me. Shall He who created the eye not be
able to repair it? Then why is it that
spiritual healing should have had to
apologize for itself for so long? Simply
because the race had got out of the habit
of depending upon it, and, like anything
else that is not used, it was lost, for a
time, only to be now re-established with
accelerated force. Humanity is clamoring
for it. The churches are trying to supply
it, and it is only a question of time
when the church which does not supply it
will be asked the reason for its
impotency.
The demand
has gone forth and the supply is
forthcoming. Faith is on the increase and
the result of faith will be restoration
of that primitive order which gave to
Christianity its first great impulse. If
“a genuine act of faith in God [74]
(as the Healer of our diseases) is a
movement of the whole being towards Him,
and brings the soul into vital contact
and vivifying conjunction with the
Central Life,” then it follows that
the more faith we have in the unseen
force of the Holy Spirit the better. If
the mind of man is constantly creating a
body for itself in its own image and
likeness, that is, in harmony with its
own nature, then we should see that our
mental pictures are of the highest
possible character. If the teaching of
Jesus is true, that in the healing of our
diseases it is done unto us,
“according to our faith,”
then he is the best physician who seeks
to wean his patient from a too strong
reliance on inert matter to Active
Mind.
We walk by
faith, but it is better to walk by faith
in God than in man. The arm of the Lord
is stronger than the arm of mortals, and
therefore to be leaned upon with more
assurance of unfailing support. If a
sugar-coated bread-pill, or a
rabbit’s foot, through faith in
their potency, can cure an ill or ward
one off, what should not an unquestioning
faith in God accomplish? If to believe
that we are sick is to make us so, then a
change of belief to the conviction that
we are well is to make this a reality to
us, and this assurance becomes more real
and lasting in the degree that health is
understood as the normal, and therefore
the real, state of mind and body. Let our
declaration be at all times, then,
“I am one with Him in Whom no
sickness is.”
Chapter
7
* * * * *
The Realm of Reality
Table of
Contents
(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
Center)
