Article December 12, 1925 Issue

Working with God, Good

ANDREW J. GRAHAM

HE who has not been awakened by the illuminating touch of healing as practiced by Jesus the Christ and revived in these days by Christian Science, suffers a handicap and is unable to work intelligently for his own release, or the release of others, from the bonds of sickness and sin. When, however, by means of Christian Science treatment the individual becomes conscious of approaching freedom, he himself is privileged to become cognizant of that spiritual power which will enable him to become an active worker with God in the destruction of sickness and sin for others as well as for himself. The very reception of divine grace, truth, and love lays upon one the imperative obligation to make use of these gifts in demonstrating good for mankind.

It might be interesting, but perhaps depressing, if one could know the subsequent history of the nine lepers who so quickly after their healing seemed oblivious of any obligations. Every healing and deliverance through Christian Science should make one more grateful and active. Real strength, issuing in Christian work, is a development rather than an envelopment, an unfoldment instead of an accretion, from within out, rather than from without in. It is normal and necessary for Christian Scientists to progress from the infant consciousness of the Christ to the Christ of manhood and womanhood. As one's horizon of understanding reaches farther into the infinite, one becomes more active mentally, more reliant on God and less dependent upon human helpers. Predigested food is not the diet on which alert Christian Scientists thrive. Jesus said, "My meat [that by which I grow] is to do the will of him that sent me."

Christian Science healing puts one in the ranks of the spiritually first-born; a great blessing has brought with it a great responsibility. Freely he has received; and no great progress toward final peace is possible unless his gratitude manifests itself in sincere endeavor to demonstrate the truth he has received. Cases of arrested development in Christian Science are the result of sluggish, apathetic thought, a reluctance to work in the workshop of thought, the only place where one can ever do real work. Nor can Christian Scientists thrive very long on work done by others only. It is essential that one dig in the mine; and the one golden nugget of truth which he himself discovers is very precious.

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