Article June 30, 1923 Issue

"Awake and sing"

ANNE CLEVELAND CHENEY

"Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust," is the call of Christian Science. Many of us who have been in deep tribulation have heard, from time to time, various calls to leave it and come out into a more satisfactory state. We have found, however, that these voices, heartening as they promised to be, did not tell us how we were to emerge; and, like Job's advisory board, our would-be helpers were themselves accepting the dust as an inevitable, if not an eternal, habitation, and differed from ourselves only in the amount of singing they were able to do therein! Whether slowly or rapidly, Christian Science makes clear to the earnest seeker what it means to dwell in the dust, how to awake and arise and, as the Psalmist says, "sing a new song." Some, like restless, troubled moths, flit near to Christian Science and fly away again; for their light search has been after some easy-going, pain-killing sort of process, and they have found themselves confronted by a demand, as well as an assurance. They must awake, if they would sing!

For those who have suffered deeply; or who have found the established order of their days empty; or who, with a love for humanity, cannot be satisfied with palliative measures of helpfulness,—for such, there is unspeakable blessedness. They will find that, first of all, Christian Science is divine and is Science,—so thorough as to be revolutionary; going to the very foundation, not only of individual tribulation, but of the tribulation of the whole world. It goes down to the very dust, and makes good its claim that all evil arises from the belief, universally held, that man dwells in the dust; that he springs from it and returns to it,—the Adam-dream, from which humanity must awake if it would rejoice in the God-given assurance of man's dominion.

Christian Science makes clear that the book of Genesis sets forth first the true spiritual creation, God's creation, wherein Spirit, Mind, is the sole creator, pronouncing all that He has made good, and creating man in His likeness,—in the likeness of Mind, Spirit. The second account of creation is that of the counterfeit. A mist arose; and from the mist, or illusion, came the false material creation, which seeks to reverse every statement of the true, spiritual record. The first account records one God, Mind, good, and man created by God and in the likeness of God. The second is a statement of matter and evil, wherein God is portrayed, not as the sole creator, but as sharing His power with another. Matter claims a part in man's creation; and man is not the likeness of good, but obeys evil and is accursed!

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