Article February 26, 1921 Issue

Fulfilling the Demands of Spirit

GERTRUDE E. M. SAUNDERS

Christian Science comes to the human consciousness at all times and in all circumstances. Nothing can hinder it or stay it. It pierces the walls of the prison house, it searches out the sorrowful and despairing, it enters the house of sickness, it is found in the turmoil of the workshop and in the busy city office, in the log cabin high up on the mountain side, and in the homestead amid the great stretches of prairie land. It "is no respecter of persons;" it presents to all alike its method, by which each may, at the very moment Truth is perceived, start on that best of all possible tasks, namely, that of working out one's own salvation. It is this very task, however, which one sometimes finds a little irksome and disagreeable. Having caught a glimpse of the real creation, he is apt not only to be impatient with but to wish to disregard many of the footsteps leading to that freedom from all materiality to which divine Science points and leads the way; which is, indeed, both way and goal in itself, for the moment the path of Principle is entered upon, that moment the oneness of Principle and idea is, in some degree, demonstrated.

There is nothing in the Scriptures or in the writings of Mrs. Eddy to encourage any hope that perfection can be reached by any slurring over or neglect of any duties. In reality there are no such things as merely human duties, because actually man is constantly fulfilling the demands of Spirit; and it is in proportion as this is realized that human duties, which necessarily call for the laying down of the belief in a self, give place to self-government, for, as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 125), "Reflecting God's government, man is self-governed." And this is surely something of what Jesus meant by his parable of the talents. The servants who neglected no opportunity to use the knowledge which was theirs doubled the portions left to their care, and received the "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." In other words, they had been about their business and had used their knowledge of Principle in all their dealings with their fellow men, with the result that they were no longer servants to the human senses but would henceforth share with their master the joy of authority over all that was unlike God, good.

On page 254 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science may not be achieved prior to the change called death, for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do not understand. But the human self must be evangelized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual." It must be remembered that Christ Jesus ascended after his life's mission was fulfilled. When his followers have overcome sin at all points, then will man be found in the image and likeness of God, but one will never realize perfection whilst trying to reach it through imperfection at any one point.

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