Whether we realize it or not, we are the arbiters of our own destinies; we are daily making our eternal choice. If always conscious of this, would any Christian Scientist ever flag in loyalty to Christ, the impersonal Saviour, or overlook what that loyalty involves? Our Leader never sought to accelerate the growth of Christian Science among mankind by picturing that it would strew the path of life with roses; on the other hand, she uttered many words of warning that the approach of Truth would mean the activity of error, until all error was proved to be powerless. She says, "Jesus spares us not one individual experience, if we follow his commands faithfully" (Science and Health, p. 26). It sometimes seems a mystery that those who are the most earnest and sincere in demonstrating the truth should apparently be called upon to pass through fiery trials, but so it will be until the full stature of manhood in Christ is reached. The evil one, or the one evil, will not be destroyed until the last enemy is overcome.

The Wayshower has exemplified to us what we can do if we follow in his steps,—not that the most faithful are to be the most tried, but that every product of the carnal mind must be proved to be illusion in the light of the knowledge which is revealed by spiritual law. It may be that we are tempted to be a little rebellious about the purifying process, and we think that if we are able to talk in easy freedom about the gracious results that would follow if we constantly knew the truth about everything, all our crooked paths should quickly be made straight, and the "way of the Lord" plain. But how little do we know about the nature of the thought which is being cleansed and purified, and about the operation of the divine Principle in transforming mortal consciousness! If we are seeking to peer into the realm of the infinite, to bring our human intelligence to bear in discovering how to solve daily problems without complying with all the conditions of God's rule and law, nothing but failure can result, and then we shall acknowledge, with tears of repentance that complete regeneration of self and sense is the divine way of salvation.

Having arrived at this understanding, we may be confident that, if we are true to this enlightened faith, we shall not in our demonstration be called upon to submit to any test beyond our strength to bear. None of us wish to remain where we are spiritually; we possess a healthy desire to advance. Every moment we spend in prayer and in reading the words of Truth, in the Scriptures, in Christian Science literature or elsewhere,—in all Christly work, and in our quiet times of meditation, when divine Love always seems so near to us,—should bring a hunger akin to impatience for deeper consecration, for greater faithfulness, for a firmer grasp of spiritual reality, for a clearer sense of revelation. Yet there is often of sense of dissatisfaction. May it not be that in the Valley of Decision we have not made our fixed choice between matter and Mind; that personal sense still governs, and that the necessity for anything like self-effacement has not occurred to us as a condition precedent to spiritual receptiveness?

Spiritual steadfastness stands for our unfoldment in Truth. Abiding in Christ brings us rich spiritual food. This is beautifully natural; it is the law of the divine economy. We reflect the spirit of the realm in which we mentally dwell. Our standing as Christian Scientists can be gaged by the support to which we cling. The direction of our aspirations today determines the distance that we shall have traveled by tomorrow. The milestones of life indicate not only our road but also our progress. There are climbing plants which are wonderfully sensitive to continued contact with their supports, and always move and flourish in response to the stimulus thus gained; and do not our growth and achievement, our answers to prayer, our usefulness as witnesses to the power that comes from the recognition of spiritual selfhood, depend upon our abiding in Christ? If we cannot completely apprehend what Christ, Truth, means to us, we have at least some measure of understanding which will enable us to live up to our convictions.

Christian Science has been revealed to the world that there may be witnessed a higher order of Christianity, which shall be the fulfilment not only of the visions of the old prophets, but of the mission inaugurated by Christ Jesus. We may well be amazed, as Christendom always has been, at the kind of men whom Jesus chose to be his students and exponents of the truth. But he knew man; he saw it was possible to show that the qualities for effective service to humanity are not those which the human intellect would select. Simple faith and spiritual receptiveness become mighty weapons for razing the stronghold of sin. To those disciples (as to us today) it was necessary to graduate in the school of experience, with Christ always as Master. There, in this school, were rolled away the stones that hindered resurrection to newness of life. There the light of the knowledge of Truth streamed through the cleansed thought. Every pure desire, every uplifted look, every effort to reach out for the living water of Truth, was a step along the shining way.

We of today may well follow in their path. The Christ has never left us; he is risen, and is drawing every dissatisfied heart to the life that is hidden from material sense, in God. We are to look to God, not to ourselves. Our advancement will be an ascent, in the conscious strength of divine Love. There will not be complete attainment yet, it is true. "My students are at the beginning of their demonstration," wrote Mrs. Eddy; "they have a warfare with error in themselves and in others to finish . . . They cannot in the beginning take the attitude, nor adopt the words, that Jesus used at the end of his demonstration" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 215). But what of that, if we are seeking to do the works which the Master did! That is all God wants us to do. We should live today in the spirit of pure and holy purpose, and not be alarmed because happiness seems to elude our grasp. When it does so, it is because we have sought to materialize it. Our real world is spiritual, and it is the spiritual life that we have to live. On this foundation we shall not suffer disillusionment if some of the things of sense upon which our hearts have been fixed, fail us. Our seeming losses will be nothing to our gains. What Christian Scientist regrets anything he has had to give up? Is he not rejoicing in a hundredfold guerdon? And if error is not yet wholly subdued, does he not know that never again will he be left to fight the enemy alone, since God is always at his right hand, his strength and shield?

If we are flattering ourselves that we are exempt from sickness, or from gross sins, or from the stress of poverty, let us then be grateful, but at the same time always on the watch. "When I am weak, then am I strong," was Paul's experience. To trust in the flesh is to forget the Spirit. The psalmist declared, "In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved." There is the peril of a false belief; a loophole has been left in the spiritual armor, and error has entered in. The heart may be lifted up in a sense which means one is relying upon material prosperity and defying God. The way of Christ is not that of self-complacency or conceit; it is the way of humility combined with confidence, not in self, but in God. Would we be always prepared for whatever testing time may come? Then we may well remember that "fidelity to his [Christ's] precepts and practice is the only passport to his power" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 270). It is this power, divine, spiritual, absolutely unfailing, which is more and more needed to present Christian Science to a waiting world in all its immortal purity and redemptive force.

Copyright, 1914, by The Christian Science Publishing Society