Article April 25, 1925 Issue

To-day

BERNARD JOSEPH HINKLE

Jesus understood the futility of looking ahead unscientifically; for he said: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow. ... Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." To-morrow never comes, because it is always twenty-four hours ahead of to-day, and, like a will-o'-the-wisp, we never can catch up with it. What we think or do to-day helps to make up our to-morrow; and if to-day we fill our thoughts with fear and foreboding of to-morrow, then surely to-morrow will be just like to-day. It is very true that as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." Upon careful analysis we shall find that what we call to-day is made up chiefly of thought regarding either the past or the future, and many times both. To the spiritual thinker, who has gained some understanding of Mrs. Eddy's words in the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. vii), "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings," there comes a broader concept of ever present good.

The earnest student soon learns in Christian Science that he is not separated from God by a hazy future; for where God is, good is. Our Leader does not say that to-morrow is big with blessings, but that "to-day is big with blessings;" and to gain the good to-day we must be "leaning on the sustaining infinite" to-day. We must lean on God in the present. The children of Israel had to learn the lesson of gathering the manna daily. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 307) Mrs. Eddy says: 'God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for to-morrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment." Note that the supplies are given "daily,"—not weekly or monthly.

The truth that there is no past or future is a great healer of fear, worry, sin, and disease. It helps us to demonstrate the power of the healing and saving Christ here and now. Many people who find their healing delayed, would do well to let go of remembered errors in the past, and to cease contemplating a repetition of sin or sickness in the future, holding fast to the good in the present, trusting God to unfold the blessings of each day. Behind the thoughts of looking ahead or looking back, for either success or failure, joy or sorrow, sin or disease, are false appetites, inordinate desires, ambitious lusts, and a host of other errors which laden the mental atmosphere with darkness and discord.

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