Editorial August 5, 1916 Issue

Catching the Thief Procrastination

William D. McCrackan

WITHIN the word "procrastination" hides another, which pretends to be insignificant because it is so small, but actually is a thief that needs to be caught, for the good of men and nations. This little Latin word is cras, meaning tomorrow. Procrastination, therefore, uncovers that familiar and deplorable human tendency to put off until tomorrow what had better be done today. The most expeditious manner of catching the thief "tomorrow" is to set the word "today" upon its heels; i. e., to convert tomorrow, whether it will or no, into today, into the eternal now. This conversion is no more important in the general affairs of men than it is in religious life. Prevalent theology is full of procrastination and postponement, but the apostle declares, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Commenting on this in Science and Health (p. 39) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Not that now men must prepare for a future world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life." Now is the time to distinguish between good and evil, and so to relegate the latter to the realm of the unreal. Now is the time to correct that bad habit, to heal that chronic disease, to stand up for the Christ, Truth, to establish a willingness to take the human footsteps leading to divine heights. Procrastinated salvation argues a postponed heaven. If healing and regeneration must wait on heaven, and that heaven is a locality, then death and dissolution must precede salvation, and those who believe themselves alive are estopped from harmony. How different from this doctrine of despair are the teaching and practice of Christian Science, in which there is no doctrinal procrastination or postponement of good things, but on the contrary an ever-ready and ever-present hospitality to the divine bounty which brings its priceless treasure into human experience today.

On page 19 of her published sermon, "Christian Healing," Mrs. Eddy writes: "Tireless Being, patient of man's procrastination, affords him fresh opportunities every hour; but if Science makes a more spiritual demand, bidding man go up higher, he is impatient, perhaps, or doubts the feasibility of the demand." A little sincere self-examination would doubtless uncover the lurking error of procrastination in most of us. It is sad to notice the extraordinary ingenuity which can be exercised to invent excuses in the face of a divine demand, and the startling shifts to which mankind can be put in arguing the utter impracticability of certain imperative calls, obedience to which is altogether inevitable and is sure to bless.

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