Article December 13, 1913 Issue

Taking up the Cross

IDA L. BAKER

Now and then one hears expressions of disappointment from those who have taken up the study of Christian Science, but who have not immediately realized the peace and harmony which they had expected. They looked for discordant conditions to vanish as a mist in some undefined and miraculous way, but they have had to awaken to the fact that Christian Science demands of all who appeal to it for help, the practise of the highest virtues, combined with a degree of mental activity to which they have heretofore been comparative strangers. The Scriptural text, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee," states clearly the divine requirement by which harmony is to be secured. In the endeavor to keep thought stayed on God and to realize only the presence of good, much genuine mental work is needed, and this work is immediately and insistently demanded of every Christian Scientist. The call for daily watchfulness and prayer is imperative.

Advancing in the understanding of Christian Science, the student discovers many habits and mental tendencies which must be destroyed, root and branch. Every plant which God hath not planted, must be eradicated before one can enter into that peace "which passeth all understanding." One is often tempted to relax his vigilance and to drift along with the tide of mortal belief; but this submission to error's claim only delays the coming of harmony into thought and life. Ultimately there must be, on the part of the student, an unswerving devotion to Truth.

Christian Science teaches that, unless the motive has its source in divine Principle, the deed itself profiteth nothing. Motives arising from selfish aims and purposes, separated in belief from the one infinite God, have neither power nor reality, and are therefore barren of good results. "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." To yield to the temptation to credit or identify self with goodness apart from the one universal good, to desire to confine or limit goodness to one's own personality,—this can have but one outcome, namely, inharmonious experience.

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