There is no time or place more favorable to the working out of our salvation than just where we find ourselves, for where we are, that is in our own thought, is the only place where God is available as our Saviour. We may persuade ourselves that it would be easier to be good in some other environment or with different associations, but these are not the arguments of truth, for if we look the question squarely and honestly in the face, we shall see that no moment is better adapted than the present in which to abstain from evil. To postpone it until tomorrow, to wait for a more convenient season or opportunity, is to acknowledge the claims of evil, and make them more difficult to overcome with each passing moment. In the midst of our greatest difficulties, in our darkest experiences, in the seeming presence of worldliness and sensualism, is the place to begin to know God, and the powerlessness of so-called evil to separate us from Him.

Jesus prayed, not that his followers be taken out of the world, but that they be kept from its evil, and Christian Scientists do not have to leave their home or friends or occupation, or their place and duty in the world's affairs, in order to be true to their ideal. They do not have to be ascetics before they can render acceptable service to God. It is not demanded of us that we shut ourselves in a "closet," or shun the society of congenial friends, or that we cultivate a sense of narrowness, self-satisfied intolerance, in order to make the most progress spiritually of which we are capable. We are taught that the tares and wheat are to be separated by progress (see Science and Health, p. 72), not plucked up by the roots regardless of the preparedness of human thought for such growth and development.

It is a misapprehension of Christian Science to suppose that it demands self-denial of the relatively good and enjoyable things in human experience because there is any virtue in that denial. Love of all things material naturally lessens with the apprehension of spiritual good, but without this spiritual advancement self-denial is apt to be in the nature of penance, rather than as the leaving behind of a thing outgrown. We must consider things from the relative as well as from the absolute standpoint, otherwise we are liable to become overzealous in voicing the mere letter of Christian Science, and repel rather than attract those whom we might otherwise bless.

So long as the human sense of existence continues, one's position therein cannot be ignored, nor his duty shirked on the plea of the absolute truth that man is spiritual; for if one is gaining in genuine spirituality, he will be found doing his work in this world that much more acceptably. Many things now considered normal and legitimate from the human point of view will undoubtedly be left behind in the course of progress, but until this progress is attained these conditions must necessarily be reckoned with. Not will-power, nor untempered zeal, but the transformation of thought, the spiritualization of the affections, effects progress and eliminates the sensual and unreal.

True spiritual understanding does not lead one into foolish experiments or into any erratic course. Real progress in Christian Science is accompanied by increased wisdom and modesty, as well as increased usefulness in all one's present relations. The foolish things that are sometimes said and done in the name of this Science, although with the best of intentions, spring from a lack of experience in applying its Principle, and a lack of appreciation of the immense distance between the present state of human belief and the perfection which is the ultimate goal of the student's endeavors.

Jesus knew the impossibility of a mortal's being taken out of his mortal concept of the world except as his nature is spiritually transformed and he gains the spiritual sense of being known as the second birth, but Jesus knew also, as do we, that it is possible, although remaining in a material environment, to keep oneself from its evil thinking and doing. One cannot force himself to be good, to be loving and Christlike; but he can through honest desire take each step upward as he comes to it. Only as the real nature of man as the divine idea or reflection is discerned in Christian Science, and this truth is appropriated in some degree through individual demonstration, can one be said to be leaving the material world; and this process of spiritual regeneration may be going on even while one is outwardly conforming to the normal customs and conventionalities of mankind.

While Christian Scientists hold consistently to the truth that man is and always has been spiritual and perfect, it is not in the sense that they have fully realized this truth in their own experience, but that by reason of the ideal they may uplift thought to discern more and more of that godlike being. Spiritual consciousness is not attained in its entirety suddenly. Hence, although they regard the material world and its affairs as an ephemeral sense of things, they do not feel absolved from the duties pertaining to that sense of things. If we are good Christian Scientists, it follows that we are that much better citizens, legislators, teachers, business men, mechanics, or laborers than we were before. We are better friends or counselors, husbands or wives, parents or children, and enjoy our work or our holidays better because of what we know and practise of Christian Science.

The business man who becomes a Christian Scientist does not, in consequence thereof, get out of his business if it is honorable and legitimate, but he proves that it is possible to remain in it and be honest and a Christian in the highest sense. And so on with the various professions, trades, or callings in which men find themselves and in which Christian Science finds them. It is not knavery, cheating, or lying that makes the best business; nor is it gossip, slander, or thoughtless small talk that makes the best social atmosphere; and it is right here that Christian Science is daily enabling its adherents to get the best out of both business and society, instead of going into retirement. Mrs. Eddy said of Jesus that the Christ, or spiritual idea, "made him an honest man, a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make him the glorified" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 166); and the case is not different with the rest of mankind.

The spiritual and the material are contrary states of thought, and one cannot pass from one to the other at will, the transition from the lower to the higher being accomplished only through a better way of thinking. The old-time hermits, forsaking the work-a-day world, denying themselves its enjoyments and its duties, punishing their bodies by stripes and fasting, did not thereby become more spiritually-minded or better fitted for heaven. Regeneration must begin within the individual's thought, and the grosser elements of human belief drop away of themselves as that thought ascends to higher planes. It is our part as Christian Scientists to let our spiritual light shine before men right here in this present world, that because of our example others may seek and find the way of escape from its evil.

Seeking the so-called goodly things of human existence for their own sake is not the Christian Scientist's course, for he knows their value is only relative and transient, but no one is better qualified to appreciate the best in the transitional experience through which we are passing than those who are striving to keep themselves unspotted from its evil. We shall need to live a good human life before we can hope to attain fully the divine. One may talk as high as the heavens, but words do not make men spiritual; it is what one actually lives of goodness and love that measures his progress upward. All may serve God faithfully just where their duties find them, and doing our work well even along material lines, so long as it remains to be done, improving present conditions as best we may, is not the least of that service. When all our work has been done we, too, like our Master, shall have "overcome the world."

Copyright, 1912, by The Christian Science Publishing Society.