Article August 21, 1920 Issue

Steadfastness of Purpose

HAZEL L. ZIMMERMAN

On page 261 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy has given to the earnest student of Christian Science counsel that will, if adhered to, revolutionize his thinking, and eventually his very existence. She says, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." Every one has some purpose, some form of work that he wishes to bring to perfection, but his difficulty lies in his ignorance of how this is to be accomplished without encountering the waylaying effects of anxiety, doubt, and fear. In showing humanity how to meet this need, Christian Science is bringing to the world to-day the greatest help and encouragement, for through its teachings we learn how to close the door on failure and defeat and open it wide to successful achievement. Perhaps there is no phase of the human mind so constantly trying to make of itself a reality, no argument so tenacious and no disguise so subtle, as the effort of evil to sway us from our steadfastness of purpose, our desire to reflect Principle in our thinking and thereby bring into our experience the good results which must follow our obedience to Principle.

Constant mental alertness is awake to every lying argument of error that attempts to present itself and insures the immediate recognition of the fact that the truth existed before any attempt to prevent it could even claim to exist. Does it not necessitate a steadfast determination to know only one power—the power of divine Mind, the allness of a God who is Love? Accepting as our mental concept only the enduring, the good, and the true, we must ever behold God perfectly expressed as the only neighbor. How long could a mortal belief, calling itself a sick man, exist, if one were holding fast mentally only to that which is good? Could it be possible for the present seeming condition of money worship and unrest to continue if men were seeking the enduring? Would world war, strife, hatred, vain bickerings, and deceits need to be experienced if every one of us accepted only that which is true, only that which is revealed to us as Truth through founding our thinking on Principle?

We must bear in mind that, as Mrs. Eddy says, "Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty" (Science and Health, p. 183). In the measure, then, that we are obedient—and steadfastness of purpose can only mean obedience, through an impulsion of Principle to greater growth—are we blessed. The experience of the active Christian Scientist of to-day may well be summed up in Paul's words, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

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