Article December 14, 1918 Issue

Work

ETTA D. DALE

At this time of the world's great need, the wish has been expressed in the United States of America from those in authority that every able-bodied man shall work, and the expression of this wish has given general satisfaction. It has made people differentiate between real work and the false sense of work. The only work which can properly be described as such, is that which produces something. When a person is working without achieving any result, he is not really working. Work is accomplishment, and is, in its last analysis, mental. All action is the result of thought, and the right kind of education helps us to think correctly so that we may perform certain acts more successfully. Writing of Christ Jesus in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 18) Mrs. Eddy says, "He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,—to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility."

The Master's work was based on his understanding of the Science of being, on the truth that Life is Spirit, and that man is spiritual. Those he healed were set to work in a new direction because they began to understand life spiritually. They began to see that all human activity is only the carrying out of the activity referred to by Paul in his letter to the Philippians, when he said, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." All man's work is understood to be the expression of Truth and Love; then whatever branch of industry subserves the good of humanity, whatever goes to meet the world's great sense of need, is seen to be true work, and should be counted as a labor of love. It is not the work itself, but our limiting and material sense of it, that makes a task burdensome to us. The burden will vanish when we see that all our work is in Mind, and we shall find in all we do joy and true success, measured not by what we get out of it, but by how much we can give through it.

We should never doubt the success of our work when it is done in the right spirit, and when our work expresses intelligence and truth it must attract to itself only good, and there can be no failure in it. All true work is God's work, and His work is good. Mrs. Eddy preaches the gospel of work in Christian Science when she says on page 2 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1900: "The song of Christian Science is, 'Work—work—work—watch and pray.' ... The right thinker works; he gives little time to society manners or matters, and benefits society by his example and usefulness. He takes no time for amusement, ease, frivolity; he earns his money and gives it wisely to the world." The work done thus by each individual, in so far as it is actuated by love and unselfishness, contributes to the good of mankind and to the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. To be obedient to our highest understanding of good is the highest service, the most patriotic service we can render our country. The value of our work for our country is measured by our demonstration of right-mindedness.

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