Editorial June 27, 1914 ISSUE

"Let patience have her perfect work"

Archibald McLellan

One of the lessons that Christian Scientists are learning is the need for "patient continuance in well-doing." They are beginning to understand what Christ Jesus meant when he said, "In your patience possess ye your souls." He saw all about him the beliefs of life in matter, and he patiently and persistently labored to overcome these beliefs. He did not attempt this, however, with the mistaken violence of those who would take the kingdom of heaven by force, but rather with that loving tenderness, compassion, and assurance which binds up the broken-hearted and comforts them that mourn, in fulfilment of his mission, as foretold by Isaiah.

Mrs. Eddy further saw that the progress of mankind out of these beliefs—the "passage from sense to Soul," as she has called it (Science and Health, p. 566)—must be a matter of time. Not that the power of God is limited, but (as she explains so clearly on page 396 of Science and Health) "the refutation of the testimony of material sense ... becomes arduous, not because the testimony of sin or disease is true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelming weight of opinions on the wrong side,—all teaching that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation." It was for this reason, and the added fact that she had learned that "in the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and acknowledged only by degrees" (Science and Health, p. 233), that she planted the Christian Science organization on an enduring basis, with rules and by-laws which should be as applicable to its needs fifty centuries hence as they are today.

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