"Be thou faithful"

Ella W. Hoag

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life," was the word the angel told John to proclaim to all who had "ears to hear." Christians have always prayed that they might be among those who would finally win this desirable reward; but the most of them have believed it would only be awarded in a distant heaven at some unknown future day. At the same time they have wondered, however faithful they may have endeavored to be, if they could hope to be among those crowned. Although Jesus taught and proved that faithfulness "unto death" meant the final overcoming even of the "last enemy," not the yielding to it, Christians have still looked largely to the death of the body as the necessary preliminary to the measuring of their reward.

Christian Science, from its standpoint that the infinite God is divine Life and that this divine Life is divine Mind, reveals the fact that all there is to death must be the beliefs in a life and mind apart from God; these beliefs are what must be relinquished. As Paul said: "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Then every false, material thought which is conquered—proved unreal—by a divine, spiritual thought registers the death of that much error. Thus we see what Paul meant when he said, "I die daily;" he each day gave up some belief in a false selfhood.

As men awaken to the fact that they are conscious of life only as they think divine thoughts, they will recognize that it is their thinking they must learn to watch, and not their bodies. They will see that when they cling to a spiritual thought—a thought which belongs to God, who is both Life and Mind—with sufficient steadfastness to overcome its opposite supposititious mortal thought, they have entered just so much into real life, and a false belief has been destroyed; just so much of death has been put off, and just so much of life has been put on.

As the Christian Scientist accepts this teaching, he learns that faithfulness "unto death" must mean to be faithful in his persistent holding to each thought which is from God, and in his equally persistent refusal to entertain the opposite belief which originates with a supposititious evil mind, until the latter is proved unreal. Each time that he does this his faithful effort is crowned with divine success, the only real crown there ever has been or ever can be.

Then there is no question about receiving the crown here and now in proportion as faithfulness is demonstrated! "No cross, no crown," is a common saying; and it may be readily seen that without the cross of steadfast effort no success can be won, no crown can be earned. We certainly must earn our crowns; and how grateful we should be that in Christian Science we have the way to do this so plainly pointed out! In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 340) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Only by persistent, unremitting, straight-forward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful."

What joy the Christian Scientist should feel because he is thus shown how to be faithful! What could possibly bring such continual satisfaction as to walk steadfastly in the straight and narrow way which our beloved Leader has here presented! We know that our work is always mental,—for however we may seem to be occupied so far as human affairs may be concerned, we are always thinking, thinking, thinking! Then what a glorious privilege it is to be continually faithful in dividing between true and false thoughts,—between good and evil, between life and death,—choosing the true, rejecting the false!

As we do this more and more earnestly, we will naturally seek only those pursuits and pleasures which come from God, since only thus can we do the mental work demanded of each one of us. Surely no Christian Scientist will intentionally dwell with death,—material thoughts,—when he may continually be choosing life, the spiritual thoughts which always bring the crown of success in the degree in which they are loved and thought and lived. And never to rest satisfied until each evil thought is completely routed, is entirely vanquished, is resolved into its native nothingness,—this is indeed the demand of faithfulness!

Christian Scientists who have worked long and faithfully, who have had many an effort crowned with true success, are sometimes tempted to think that such simple lessons as these are not for them. But can we be reminded of these fundamentals too often? Who among us can yet answer his Leader's questions in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 238) with a perfect affirmative? "Have you renounced self? Are you faithful? Do you love?" Let us all, then, press patiently, humbly forward, all working out the same problem in the same way, until all shall have been "faithful unto death,"—until the last mortal fault shall have been destroyed—and shall have thus won the complete "crown of life."

Ella W. Hoag

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Witnessing to Truth

April 19, 1924

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