Article April 24, 1915 Issue

Faithfulness in Well-doing

ALFRED FARLOW

Our Leader writes: "'Learn to labor and to wait.' Of old the children of Israel were saved by patient waiting" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 79). St. Paul expresses the same thought when he exhorts us after "having done all, to stand." There is a mechanical appliance called a ratchet, which may be turned forward but cannot be turned backward. Every Christian Scientist should be like it in his adherence to Truth. He should go forward whenever an opportunity is afforded him, but he should never allow himself to retreat. He should preserve his sense of Truth at all times, and thereby keep himself always in line, using every opportunity for a forward movement, even though it may be only a short advancement now and then.

To wait, in the sense in which Mrs. Eddy uses the word, implies that we should keep on doing our work faithfully, irrespective of the question of reward and even in the face of an apparent lack of evidence that our work is counting for anything. Our chief care should be that we are working in the right line. The old saying, "Be sure you are right, then go ahead," implies that there is no end to the going ahead until the desired end is reached, and here we do well to recall Mrs. Eddy's interesting testimony: "The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it" (Science and Health, p. 426).

If the Christian Scientist does not remember the spiritual fact of being which he has learned, he forfeits the advantage that his new sense of being has given him in his effort to overcome in order that he may "inherit all things." While the children of Israel were mending the breaches in the walls of Jerusalem, it is said that they worked with a trowel in one hand and their weapon of defense in the other. The Christian Scientist has the foe within as well as without to contend with; in other words, he has his own shortcomings to overcome, also the error from without which would intrude itself. His weapon of defense is his consciousness that he is always defended by the ever-presence of divine Love, and to make the best possible use of his time he must keep this weapon ever available; he must dwell constantly in the fact of the ever-presence of God, while laboring to improve his own condition and at the same time defending himself against any intrusion which might make the breaches worse than they now are, or cause him to retreat from the advanced position that he has gained from time to time.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Faithfulness in Well-doing

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access