Article April 13, 1912 Issue

CONSECRATION

BLANCHE HERSEY HOGUE.

The human mind has a way of scattering itself in many directions. It pays attention to the things most interesting for the moment or for the hour. God demands, however, that the desire for righteousness and the search for understanding be instant and constant. Here there can be no wandering. Eager and importunate is he who is consecrated; devoted and single of purpose if he would attain. God comes first in the affections of him who is truly a Christian, and no appeal of the world can dissuade or delay him whose intent is fixed on spiritual growth. The thing the Christian loves most keeps most in his thoughts, and gladly and thoroughly he serves it.

As students of Christian Science we are individually in varying stages of consecration. To a greater or less extent we are still serving the world, still in bondage to its time-consuming demands. Honest analysis brings us to admit, then, that we are yet somewhat given to worldly doings, even with our present measure of consecration to God. We all speak of "social dissipation," for instance, admitting by the term the nature of much that takes our time. Human affairs go on largely without the remembrance of God, yet as God is better understood His presence will come into our affairs; our ways will change and the manner in which we spend our time will change. Many of us lament that we find so little time to ponder the ways of God, yet at the moment we may be engrossed in something which a little more courage and purity of purpose would eliminate. When worldly distraction asks for valuable hours out of a precious day, we can always test the worth of it by deciding whether it will contribute to the spirituality of ourselves or of any one else. If it does, God speed it! But if it does not, we shall by renouncing it surely gain greater hold upon the things to which we are truly consecrated.

The least wise of us will admit that an hour spent with one of the old prophets, with Matthew or Luke or John, with the preaching of Paul, or with the words and works of the master Christian himself, in the light which Christian Science sheds upon it all, is of hundredfold more value than anything the human mind can devise through which to entertain itself. The honest labor necessary for many of us, in our homes or out of them, limits greatly the time we can spend as we choose; and the decision concerning the holiday hour—whether it shall contribute to our spiritual growth or to our personal pleasure—determines in great measure our progress heavenward. Christian Science is not here to keep us in good trim for material enjoyments or for intellectual excesses. It comes to spiritualize our thinking; and spirituality should cost us something. Spiritual knowing is not ours by accident or by good fortune. It never "happens." It comes through the thorough systematic work involved in cherishing Godlike thoughts and in casting out material thoughts; it appears only as self-seeking, with all it includes, disappears. And when we really desire spirituality above all else, we shall cease to pamper the intellect and the appetites, as fast as we discover the nature of these things in ourselves and set earnestly about seeking first the knowledge of God.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

CONSECRATION

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access