Article March 10, 1917 Issue

"In your patience possess ye your souls"

JESSIE B. RICHMOND

Long ago Christ Jesus said to his disciples, in preparing them for the tribulation which they would encounter in overcoming mortal and material belief, "In your patience possess ye your souls." Christian Science teaches a new concept of patience. In its more spiritual sense patience loses its material accretions, and is no longer confused with inaction, tending to a stagnant condition of thought, or with resignation to some form of evil which mortals seem powerless to overcome. Through the teaching of our revered Leader patience is clearly seen to be instead a quiet, undaunted continuance in well-doing, undismayed by the threats of material sense because sustained by the hidden manna of the Word of God. This "bread from heaven" enables the student to prove daily and hourly that Truth is man's real food. Christian Science requires the steadfast, untiring application of patience to every detail of daily living, to everything that touches consciousness. It is the faithful performance of man's primary function and duty of separating the real from the unreal, holding fast to the things that are lovely, honest, and of good report. Patience is the fruit of one's recognition of the government of divine Principle.

The Bible is one long record of the infinite patience of divine Love, ever ready to be gracious to men as soon as men will let go the blinding veil of belief in an existence separate from good. Never altering or lowering the standard of perfection, the sacred writings show "the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely'" (Science and Health, p. 3), blessing every sincere turning away from evil toward the abiding joys of spiritual good. To those who are beginning to learn of the divine nature and purpose by exercise of spiritual discernment, it is ever true that God's "hand is stretched out still" to all His children.

This loving patience of our heavenly Father is seen exemplified and reflected in prophets, apostles, and saints. These prophets, uplifted by spiritual understanding, saw much that their fellow countrymen and contemporaries could not see. Bravely and cheerfully they bore the misunderstanding and even abuse of those who did not wish their dream of material substance and personal desires broken in upon and the nothingness of the human or moral mind exposed. It was this vision of unseen realities which made these prophets the practical helpers of their race, enabling them to act as judges, leaders, and lawgivers, bearing aloft the torch of progress.

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