Sticking to Our Guns

                                              (By John Robert Howell)


There is something appealing to a certain turn of mind at any rate, about the Stetsoned, two six-shootered gunslinger, squinting gimlet-eyed before him, face bronzed by years of scorching desert suns and chiseled by searing heat and wind-driven sand.  Maybe the stump of an old cheroot clinced defiantly in  his teeth, ever alert and ready to take on any foe or confront any danger.

All Scientists would do well to pack the two six-shooters of the Truth:  the Bible and Science and Health.  It is essential that Christian Scientists be ever alert to error and quick on the draw with these two powerful sources of inspiration and spiritual strength.  The distaff reader may not find the initial picture appealing, with or without the cheroot, and this fanciful image is not meant to suggest that the gentler sex should become metaphysical Ma Barkers.  Maybe Annie Oakleys.  But we all need those two powerful sources of Truth, Life, and Love and must know how to use them instantly through familiarity gained only by constant, daily "practice" therewith and humble, contrite prayer for increased understanding of God and His creation.  It is the only way out of mortal mind and on and up to greater conscious unity with God.

Greenborn bravado and temerity will not long suffice for him (or her) armed only with the single six-shooter of daily excerpts from our textbooks.  Such as they will ultimately discover that they just do not have enough fire power to do the job.  We are told by Christ Jesus that we must know the Scriptures and by Mary Baker Eddy that we must study and ponder both.  I know of no way to follow these commands without constantly belting them on our hips, so to speak, i.e., keeping them always at our fingertips.  And using them faithfully each day.

So, a spiritually-enriched month of March to my fellow Christian Scientists.