Article January 31, 1920 Issue

To-day

JOSEPH G. MANN

There is no more mischievous tempter in the path of the progressive present than the unaccountable subtlety of the pressure of discontent,—a robbing of the present by the contemplation of a more satisfactory future. From the selfishness of exuberant youth, up through the pride of prosperous maturity to the fading flower of age, human ingratitude, minimizing the present, from the viewpoint of its preserved innate selfishness, as selfishly looks forward to a coveted future, whose attainment is fraught with continued disappointment and dissatisfaction, inasmuch as satisfaction is not a human possibility.

Joyful satisfaction is found only in divine awakening, a fact realized by the psalmist, when he said, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." There is more restful satisfaction in the humble appreciation, in any measure, of our spiritual birthright, than in all the chasing of promising human shadows called human success. In the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings." Whatever robs to-day of the completeness of one's present sense of the "sustaining infinite," tempting one to ruminate upon a better day,—as if God could be better to one to-morrow than He is to-day,—is the thief and robber denounced by the Master.

To the Master, life was a present unfoldment of God, divine Mind,—a present true or spiritual sense of God reflected, not a future attainment. To him heaven was within,—a divine fact to be realized to-day, and not a future possibility or a hope long deferred. Jesus' to-days and to-morrows were not a sense of time, but a progressive spiritual unfoldment, in the present, of God's ever presence. To God there is no time, only eternity; and to the living Christian the only reality is the present, overshadowed by the practical, spiritual realization of God's presence.

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