We can be conscious only one moment at a time; and in that moment we should think only good thoughts. Error would have us believe that some other time than the present is of more importance to us. It would have us believe that we cannot accomplish all the good we should like to-day, because of past limitations; and it argues that because we are not able to accomplish all we should like to-day, we shall necessarily be limited to-morrow. But all good, all that ever was or ever can be, exists now; and no past, however drear, has had the power to destroy one iota of good, nor has it the power to deprive us of it at the present moment. It seems difficult to hold steadfastly to the fact that to-day holds all of good for us,—all of Life, all of Love, and all of Truth,—and that to-morrow will be just another to-day when it comes; but this understanding can be gained, or the task would never be ours.

Cherishing thoughts of health, love, joy, peace, and plenty in the present, we are building an impervious screen against the dark forebodings of an approaching to-morrow. To believe that evil was once true opens the way to fear it to-day and dread it for to-morrow. How are we to progress in the way of good, if we continue to look back and point to some imaginary monument we have erected over the burial place of past sickness and sorrow? Error never had a place; so why try to mark the exact locality, by telling our friends just where, when, and how it happened? The truth is that nothing ever happened in reality but God's goodness, mercy, justice, and loving-kindness; and we can well afford to remember this and forget that which never was! We should be willing to let the fires die out after we have once come safely through the furnace of affliction. Troubled yesterdays are wholly excluded from the thought duly conscious of present blessing.

Children are often wiser in these matters than their elders, for the only past they are apt to recall is that of "good times." All error can ever ask of us is to be kept alive and active by keeping its memory green, in dwelling upon the past sorrows and sins of ourselves and others. If God is changeless good, and we are well and happy to-day, this is all that can ever be true of us. To be healed in Christian Science does not mean that we have been healed of real diseases, real sins and sorrows, but only of the false belief in them; and when we have once proved a belief to be false, it is unwise to be trapped into referring to it as a past fact. To express gratitude for healing at the right time and place is our blessed privilege, but the dark side of the experience should be touched upon as lightly as possible, both for our own sake and for that of others.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "No and Yes" (p. 24), "There was never a moment in which evil was real." Then if evil was never real in the past, it is not real to-day, nor can it be in the future. The belief in a past is the belief that we have left there something necessary to our well-being, our youth, strength, loved ones, and opportunities; while the truth is that now is the only time there ever was or ever will be, and that it abounds with blessings for the children of God. Since sin, sickness, and death are unknown to God, they cannot in reality be experienced by man, His image and likeness; therefore, it is our duty to our heavenly Father and to our fellow-men to eradicate from thought every suggestion of evil, past or present, and constantly rejoice in the certain knowledge of the presence of divine Love. Righteous effort along these lines will soon result in a clearer understanding of the nothingness of evil.

Sorrow for past defeat and hope for future triumph seem often to engross the human thought to the hindrance of the work in hand, until Christian Science comes to the understanding as a rebuke to fear and worldly ambition. Paul says, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." We should be so fully occupied in enjoying and demonstrating our understanding of Christian Science as to leave no time for needless regrets and repinings. The world can be benefited by Christian Science only as human thought is prepared to receive it. We should begin the work in our own consciousness without delay.

God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient; and His creation is perfect and harmonious now. In striving to apprehend and assimilate these fundamental facts of creation, one gradually and almost imperceptibly becomes more Christlike; and he expresses, in greater degree, perfection and harmony. He no longer regards the trifling circumstances of daily living with gravity or alarm. Knowing they are not of divine Principle, he realizes their transitory nature, and refuses to be disturbed by that which will be forgotten in the rush of to-morrow's events.

Christian Science teaches us the way to find God; but it cannot make us find Him: that is wholly our individual task, and it can be accomplished only through daily and hourly obedience to spiritual demands. We cannot expect God to be more Godlike and perfect and good, to be more abundantly ours in some other state of existence and at some other time than the present; but we should expect to be able to realize more and more the perfection of God and our relation to Him. Past obedience will not atone for present disobedience; nor will the intent to do better at some future time render less reprehensible our shortcomings of to-day.

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," said the Apostle Paul. Not next week or next year, but now is divine Love ready and willing to save to the uttermost; and it may be this spirit of procrastination alone that is obscuring the radiance of perfection from our eyes. No human agency or set of circumstances can for a moment hinder our healing when we are ready to give God our whole heart; and this can surely be done as well to-day as to-morrow. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 340), "There is no excellence without labor; and the time to work, is now."

Foreseeing the long ages of mental darkness preceding the world's receptivity to Christian Science, Jesus said, "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." So long as unfoldment seems to be gradual, it is wise to improve the passing moments. Sinful beliefs and practices of to-day were generated by sinful beliefs of yesterday; and these will, in turn, be prolific of greater sins to-morrow, unless thwarted by constant right thinking and doing. Will-power and mental suggestion can never forward spiritual growth, but would, on the other hand, retard it. Such evil mental efforts arise from the action of the so-called mortal or carnal mind, and are degenerative. All evil arises from the belief in a mind separate from God; but by conforming to the will of the one Mind, evil is dethroned.

Springtime is the sweet promise of radiant summer and fruitful autumn; and it would appear that the Christian Scientist of to-day stands in the springtime of his spiritual experiences, unfolding under the radiance of God's loving guidance. We would not, if we could, unduly hasten the advent of our summer of further spiritual unfoldment. Neither should we stand shivering in a long delayed winter of mental darkness, with spring all about us, because we refuse to trust God to-day, when we have the glad assurance from our revered Leader in her Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. vii), that "to those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings."

Copyright, 1923, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, Falmouth and St. Paul Streets, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.