Article October 15, 1910 Issue

"THE BLESSINGS WE HAVE"

SAMUEL GREENWOOD.

Students of Christian Science who may be tempted to complain of the barrenness of their experience, will find a most effective rebuke of their meager receptivity, and an unfailing recipe for the increase of their sense of good, on page 3 of Science and Health, where Mrs. Eddy asks, "Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more."

A too common tendency of mortals is to desire what they are not willing to work patiently for, and this must be overcome by the student before he can rightly progress in Christian Science. The lazy worker says to the more provident and diligent disciple, "Give me of your oil, for my lamp is gone out." Probably every Christian Science practitioner is more or less troubled with repeated calls for help from those who would gather the good fruit of Christian Science, but who are too indolent or too indifferent to cultivate it for themselves. What such as these need to be healed of is not the recurrence of discordant symptoms, but of their apathy toward the demands of Truth. Self-love and self-indulgence will always be found asking for more, while abundant blessings are waiting unused.

They who are satisfied to work as little as possible for themselves are usually those who expect most of others, and are apt to charge their practitioner with the lack of responsiveness which they alone can remedy. The way of human salvation has been revealed in Christian Science, but it is a way of individual striving, growth, and attainment, wherein no one can substitute his work for another's. The infantile thought must be carried and cared for in its early stages, but the time comes when it must begin to do these things for itself, when it must do its own studying, working, watching, and praying. No mortal is good enough to dispense with his own personal obedience to the truth. One who thinks he can continue to receive the healing benefits of Christian Science, and continue in the way of the world the same as before, is deceiving himself most. The practice of truth must precede its possession, a rule from which no one is exempt.

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