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.

We must know that Truth and Love are much nearer than any claim of error which sense would try to fasten upon us, so we can nullify the argument of evil suggestion. In proportion as every assault of error called disease is kept in the mental realm, instead of being reckoned as bodily, will it be met. The time to be healed, to rise in joyous serenity. harmony, and love of God and man, is now; and we are privileged to enter into it, or at least a gracious foretaste of it, if we are faithful to our highest sense of good. To use rightly our one talent, if we have no more, always adds to our stock in trade, and our good God will surely give the increase. Thus we are disposing of error all the time and gaining Truth, fearing not to pay the price, the suffering out of sin,—and every agony of torment is a long step out, yea, with seven-league boots.

The same truth which we have seen and heard and felt from the beginning is here, now and always, healing, uplifting, and regenerating humanity with a peace never known before. God is good, and no man cometh unto Him but through the Christ-idea, the understanding of their sonship with Him. And this is done as we identify ourselves with all that is real and good and true; individualize it in our consciousness until it becomes our real selfhood, and God is found All-in-all. Every honest effort to gain more of Truth and Love, which demands a sacrifice of self, is a means of grace and growth out of matter and the mists of material sense.

Error wants to be let alone, but we are not going to let it alone. Rather will we continue our efforts at right thinking, until the absurd and illegitimate argument that man is flesh and bones, organized matter, is met, and the idea of God manifested. Mrs. Eddy writes: "This time-world flutters in my thought as an unreal shadow, and I can only solace the sore ills of mankind by a lively battle with 'the world, the flesh, and the devil,' in which Love is the liberator and gives man the victory over himself" (Sentinel, March 11, 1905).

It is a blessed privilege to know the truth, and to do it. This it is that sets us free—free from outside limitation and inside fears, and establishes peace. We no longer have a remorseful looking backward nor a fearful looking forward, but live in the ever-present now, pregnant with promise and proof, and succeed far better than human sense ever deemed possible.

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