Article June 18, 1921 Issue

True Activity

ANITA REED

TWO students of Christian Science were discussing precious stones. One remarked that a diamond was her favorite gem because it expressed purity; the other said that, to her, a diamond expressed activity. Now it is only because of its purity that a diamond can express activity, for it is only the pureness and transparency of this gem that enable it to reflect every ray of light. So it is with man; the man who really manifests activity must be that man who is least material. The purest man the world has ever known was Jesus the Christ, and there is not the slightest doubt that he was the most active. The activity Jesus manifested was very different from the world's general conception of that word.

Activity is not merely physical exertion or emotion, doing something and letting everybody around know that it is being done. True activity is the reflection of God, of Life, Truth, and Love; it is right thinking. Just as the diamond could not reflect the light or express activity without purity, so man could not possibly manifest true activity were he not pure. Dense materialism cannot reflect the light of Truth. Materialism, sensualism, and egotism can know nothing of divine activity. On the other hand, Jesus knew the nothingness of materialism. Through his boundless purity he expressed activity, and that is why he was always about his Father's business, always at his post day and night. Every student of Christian Science knows that while his thoughts are clouded with materialism he cannot think actively; and he also knows that when materialism has given place to the activity of Principle he can heal through the purity of his understanding.

Man and the universe as created by God are forever in existence, forever active, and there never was a moment when that was not so. It is only materialism that prevents us from seeing this; it is only materialism that has to go; and it is only by constant striving and through persistent fighting with the supposititious carnal mind that we can clear away the veil hiding the divine activity of God's universe from us. The carnal mind is the opposite of good, but it does its best to pass itself off as good. It was the carnal mind, the devil, error (they all mean the same thing) that, through Herod, would have killed the child Jesus or the Christ-idea. It was the carnal mind that tried to kill Jesus at Calvary, and it is the suggestion of this supposititious carnal mind that would attempt to divide the Christian Science movement. But because this carnal mind is a negation—the absence of God-it was unable to kill the Christ, and it can never destroy Christian Science, nor hinder the divine activity of God's universe.

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