Article January 1, 1910 Issue

WORKING AND PRAYING

EDWARD EVERETT NORWOOD.

Christian Scientists are not primarily working to build up a large following with churches and the things which go therewith. They are striving to regenerate human consciousness with the truth of being—to get men to think correctly, from a basis of Principle and law and not that of personal sense and fear; and they well know that individual spiritual living, the scientific understanding and reflection of the one Mind, alone meets the demand. This is what our Master meant by letting our light shine—the patient, persistent spiritualization of thought and purpose until the resultant action will be harmony established and God glorified.

Human sense, ignorant of Truth, is like the illustration once given by Lorenzo Dow, the famous Methodist preacher of the last century. He said that in the middle western states he noticed the farmers raised immense quantities of corn, much more than they could use, and the markets were quite distant. Upon asking why this was done, the answer was, "To fatten cattle and sell them." "What for?" "To raise more corn." "Why more corn?" "To fatten and sell more cattle, in order to buy more land, to raise more corn," etc. Mortal mind is just as unreasonable in heaping up riches,—of matter or of material beliefs about it, and the truth of being alone educates them out of such an unfortunate condition. It needs to know that true riches consist in a conscious possession of this understanding which cannot be taken away. Thus to know God is to awaken to that true consciousness which is the pearl of great price, and all material beliefs must be exchanged for it.

Moreover, as reflection of divine Mind, man is governed by God, and so escapes the corruption that is in the world through lust, the beliefs of intelligent matter. In such a consciousness error gradually loses its power to become operative, for it has no mind, no intelligence, continuity, nor activity. All reality belongs to God. The truth about anything is all there is to it, and this shuts out the falsity or belief about it. The truth is the spiritual sense—all there is, for it is real and good. All that we can honestly have or hope for is already existent in divine Mind, was always there, and nothing but our ignorance of God,—what He is and what He does for man,—our fear of error and faith in it, together with ignorance of how it seems to become operative in thought, can shut us out from a clear and joyous realization of the truth of it all.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

WORKING AND PRAYING

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access