Lessons in Truth (Faith, Chap. 6)

12 POWERS CLUB BOOK REVIEWS 

Power:  Faith 
Book recommendation:   
LESSONS IN TRUTH, by H. Emilie Cady 

Unity House, Unity Village, Missouri (8^th Printing, 2007) 

One of the clearest, most practical depictions of the spiritual/scientific power of Faith was written over a century ago.  Lessons in Truth, by Dr. H. Emilie Cady, is well known among Unity students and the entire New Thought movement.  While Lessons in Truth is part of Unity’s credentialling coursework, it may come as a surprise that Dr. Cady never visited Unity School, did not actually meet the Fillmores until 1926, and did not consider herself a member of the Unity movement. 

Dr. Cady had been a practicing physician for several years before one of her little books blipped on the Fillmore’s radar around 1890.  The booklet, “Finding the Christ in Ourselves,” so impressed Mrs. Fillmore that she shared it with Charles, wherein they contacted Dr. Cady, encouraging her to send contributions to their Unity magazine.  In 1894 a group of her articles coalesced into a book, Lessons in Truth, and the rest is history.  (Note: A vivid depiction of the relationship between Cady and the Fillmores can be found on pgs. 75-79 in James Dillet Freeman’s The Story of Unity.) 

“Faith,” the sixth chapter in Lessons in Truth, offers an uncannily modern depiction of the scientific principle of the power of faith – in fact, Dr. Cady begins the chapter with the quotation, “Science was faith once.” She proceeds to render a clear distinction between “blind faith” and “understanding faith,” followed by a conceptual roadmap for cultivating understanding faith that is uplifting and practical for seekers at every level.  The chapter ends with a study guide and collateral Bible references for further study. 

In Dr. Cady’s words: 

“One of the unerring Truths in the Universe (by ‘Universe,’ I mean the spiritual and natural worlds combined) is that there is already provided a lavish abundance for every human want.  In other words, the supply of every good always awaits the demand.  Another Truth is that the demand must be made before the supply can come forth to fill it.  To recognize these two statements of Truth and to affirm them are the whole secret of understanding faith – faith based on principle.”   

From Chapter Six, Lessons in Truth