Article January 30, 1915 Issue

Prayerful Activity

REV. JAMES J. ROME

No one can be very long acquainted with Christian Science without noticing the small importance it attaches to profession and its insistence that one's convictions be demonstrated in practical life. This frequently incites irritation and impatience in the human consciousness, for the general tendency of the mortal is to stagnate. Indolence and ease too often seem to be the acme of human desire, hence the too frequent willingness that others take the responsibility and do the work. This may also account for the fact that the doctrine of redemption through vicarious suffering has found such ready acceptance. On the other hand, however, many who have been awakened to the need of activity, allow themselves to be carried away by the impulse of a desire to accomplish something, and in their haste to pull up the tares they "root up also the wheat with them," and so cause destruction more than production.

Both of these phases of human consciousness have to be dealt with in Christian Science. The first, the desire for ease, may not be the most prevalent, but it is by no means uncommon. It is generally found among that class who have for a lifetime been seeking medical treatment whenever some physical ailment appeared, until their diseases have become so complicated that the doctors fail to bring relief. Then perchance they are persuaded to try Christian Science, and as a result find healing for their physical distress. Accordingly they willingly accept this teaching; but they are possibly not so ready to be healed of their habit of running to some one for help, so they substitute a Christian Science practitioner for the doctor, and go to him to have their work done for them, without putting forth any earnest effort to help themselves. Others, again, who have found relief from their trouble and ease from their pain through Christian Science, have fallen into the mistake of thinking that the chief mission of this religion is to produce a material sense of restfulness and ease instead of activity. There are still others whose submission to a sense of mental indolence hinders them from recognizing the importance of persistent effort in order to gain progress.

All these various classes are making a terrible mistake, and need to be aroused from their lethargy. It was to such as these, no doubt, that Paul addressed the words, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Christian Science does not permit any such attitude of thought, but comes to each one with the Scriptural command, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" here as elsewhere. We must be ever on guard, sleeping or waking, against that which is waiting to catch us unawares. Working, watching, and praying is our safeguard, and gives that sense of protection which enables us to go our way unharmed and unafraid. On page 340 of "Miscellaneous Writings" we read: "There is no excellence without labor; and the time to work, is now. Only by persistent, unremitting, straightforward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left,seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful." The secret of all success is wisely directed action. Activity is the law of Mind,—is necessary, in fact, to its very existence, How can we conceive of Mind without action; for without action Mind would indeed be a nonentity. The only evidence of Mind's existence is its activity. It was when Mind, God, spoke that creation appeared. It is when Mind finds expression that action is manifested in the evolution of the universe and the harmony of the stars. In Christian Science, man is understood to be the reflection of God, and herein it accords with the Scripture, which says, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Since, then, Mind is ever active, man must express action, and the mental state that would produce inactivity or stagnation is unspiritual and unnatural.

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