Article November 7, 1908 Issue

ADJUSTING ONE'S SELF TO LIFE IN TERMS OF ETERNITY

PROF. JOEL RUFUS MOSLEY

A writer in a recent issue of The Interior says: "If a man does the will of the Father in heaven, nothing in his earthly circumstances can be wrong. This confidence is half a faith that the Father will compel circumstances to turn out favorably ; half a faith that a man who lives for the Father can be happy under any circumstances."

May we not even go beyond this, and say that in Christian Science our confidence is based upon the perception that all things work together for good, and is the result of actual experience that no seeming evil has any terror for us if we trust the Father and do the best we know? Certainly all experience, as well as our highest spiritual insight, points to the conclusion that, through union with God and our own higher and real selfhood, the burdens of human life become so light that they are no longer burdens; and the trials are actually overcome, as well as mitigated, by the right attitude towards them. In the highest states of mind and in the finest life activities, we find ourselves happy under any circumstances; and the insight and love that can make us happy under adverse circumstances give us more power to shape our environment in harmony with our ideals. When we do our duty as we see it, we are happy, independent of external results; and as we follow the promptings and leadings of conscience, reason, and love, the results are also satisfactory.

The ability to rejoice in the midst of the most painful and trying external circumstances, and actually to shape the circumstances so that they result in good instead of evil, are necessary and complementary steps in the overcoming of evil with good. The perception and the conviction that make the good so vital, real, and all-inclusive that no seeming evil has any power to separate us from it, is a great step towards a victory over even the sense of evil; and the actual victory over any evil makes it easier to be of good cheer in the very midst of the battle with other evils. The non-resistance of evil, that is, the refusal to meet evil with evil, as well as the meeting of evil with good, aids in the destruction of evil. To suffer wrong and yet do no wrong, to suffer injury and to complain not, to be seemingly sick, or even to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, and to fear no evil, is a great step towards victory over the sense of sin, sickness, and death. To rejoice in good always robs evil both of its terrors and of its sense of existence.

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November 7, 1908
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