Article July 23, 1910 Issue

GROWTH AND ACTIVITY

BERTHA TRABAND MYERS.

In the midst of most unfavorable surroundings, in a busy part of a certain city, there stands by itself a beautiful tree, which despite seemingly adverse conditions has not only lived, but thrived,—grown sturdy and useful. In its infancy it was incased in heavy boards, but with its quiet, persistent growing it has burst them all away, until now it stands a beautiful symbol of what can be attained through steady obedience to the eternal law of God. Life operates through man, and when man is governed by Life, the loving activity of good, the law of Life that knows no hindrance to its infinite expression, like that tree he, too, can grow by obeying the eternal law of Life, God, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Jesus, the humble carpenter, the loving friend, the wise teacher, taught by his works as well as by his words what is possible when man is governed by divine Principle, which is ever operative, and changeless in its essence and bestowals. He so clearly discerned, understood, and obeyed the law of Life as to make powerless every belief in a manmade or material law. His consciousness was so illuminated by constant communion with the Father, the source of all good, that no wrong suggestion or temptation could hinder the good from being made manifest in all that came to him to be done. His loving obedience to the ever-operative law of good could have but one result, the overcoming of all so-called physical laws.

Christ Jesus understood better than any one before him how it is possible for man to dwell constantly "in the secret place of the most High," that shelter which David had proven was indeed a protection to whomsoever would abide there. When David met the bear and the lion in his way, he knew how and why he was protected. Later, through his understanding of divine law, he knew that he was clad in the sure armor which nothing could penetrate, and he said to Goliath: "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. ... And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." David was victorious through his obedience to the one lawgiver, God, and thus it is that in the degree with which we comply with the rules and methods of right thinking and right acting, we shall overcome all suggestions and temptations to believe in material or man-made laws as able to hinder our progress.

To be governed by the ever-operative laws of spiritual sense is to divest boastful material sense of its seeming power. Let us not be deceived by listening to wrong suggestions of the tempter, who would make us believe that our surroundings, that opposition, or any belief in a power beside God and His laws could possibly hinder; but rather let us be awake to all the wiles of the enemy, watching and praying like Solomon of old for "an understanding heart;" and we shall be as wise as he, or even wiser, for since his day Christian Science has come to reveal to human consciousness a clearer interpretation of God's laws. This revelation could only come through one receptive to the God of Israel, the Mind that never sleeps but is ever active. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, by her constant communion with God, has made the way so plain to human consciousness that we need not mistake or rob ourselves of our rightful inheritance as God's children. In "Rudimental Divine Science" (p. 1) she defines Christian Science as "the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony;" and on page 3 of the same book she says: "Jesus' healing was spiritual in its nature, method, and design. He wrought the cure of disease through the divine Mind, which gives all true volition, impulse, and action; and destroys the mental error made manifest physically, and establishes the opposite manifestation of Truth upon the body in harmony and health."

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