Editorial July 18, 1914 Issue

Intelligent Activity

John B. Willis

Who of us does not stop ofttimes in the path or roadway, these days, to note with wondering interest the shapely little sand-piles which speak for the wonderful industry of the ants! All the day, and all the night, as we are told, they devote themselves to their work, with an energy that seems no less tireless than absorbing. When one realizes what of struggle and strain it must mean for these tiny creatures to excavate such quantities of earth and rock, he is impressed not only with their pluck and perseverance, but with the thought of what such a habit of application would signify to spiritual advance. In one respect these little workers are very greatly handicapped. If they think at all, it is only half-way round the circle of experience, and they are often no less stupid than clever. Nevertheless, they blunder less frequently than most people, and for the reason that these last have immeasurably less instinct, and but a modicum of genuine intelligence in its place.

Busy men are governed largely by the impulse of desire for money, position, or power. Dominated by such desires, the so-called success of many is attributed to the habit of "keeping everlastingly at it;" but here again the absence of right knowing abundantly explains the sage judgment long since rendered, that all their gains are but "vanity and vexation of spirit." Christian Science comes to give demonstrable right-knowing its due estimate and place, in fufilment of Jesus' mandatory words, "Ye shall know the truth." For the present we cannot give up working with our hands, and we have a duty to cooperate with the well-meaning of the world in the advancement of better beliefs; but we are to resist any tendency to substitute content with being busy for content with effectiveness.

Speaking of her self-awakening and world-awakening experience, Mrs. Eddy says: "For three years after my discovery, I sought the solution of this problem of Mind-healing. I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration"(Science and Health, p. 109). Here we have that scientific spirit which honors and enthrones right consciousness, that demonstrable knowledge of the truth of being which is the inheritance of the church, but which has been so sadly ignored and forgotten by the great body of Christian believers that when brought to their attention they no longer recognize it as pertaining to the patrimony of faith.

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