Article August 30, 1913 Issue

WORKING FROM THE MODEL

MARTYN JOHNSON.

Christian Science is today appealing to an increasing number of men and women, not alone because of its ability to heal physical disorders, but because it offers a practical and effective basis on which to live happier and more efficient lives. Its teaching contains no appeal to the emotions, none to human sentimentality, none to pride of intellect. It can only enterst those who are honestly and straightforwardly striving to know the truth about God and their fellow men. It is only as we are continuously honest in our thinking, and consequently in action, that progress is made in Christian Science study. So surely as we are honest with ourselves, we get our result. It is this demonstrable, scientific exactness of the ateaching which appeals especially to men.

In Christian Science we learn that a direct relationship exists between God, "the eternal and infinite Spirit, creator and sovereign of the universe" (Webster), and man, "the spiritual image and likeness of God" (Science and Health, p. 591). This relationship is the logical and immutable one of cause and effect. The entire problem of human thought and endeavor is to discover and realize perfection. This quest has been the inspiration of human progress in every direction, material or spiritual. Wherever the history of the human race has been recorded, it has been merely the story of the desire innate in the human breast for self-realization, for fulfilment, for eliminating individual imperfection.

Christian Science at the start reveals to us an absolute standard of perfection, "God and man" (Science and Health, p. 470). Thus, with a definite ideal of perfection before us, our problem is merely one of application. How can we most effectually realize and express the ideal, here and now, in every-day experience? Worship, with true Scientists, is not a matter of attending church services, nor of assenting to an abstract truth, but of practise. It is a daily and hourly endeavor to correct thought and action until they coincide with the Christ-ideal.

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