Article March 14, 1914 Issue

Following Christ

ROBERT NALL

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?

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