Article July 4, 1925 Issue

Work

MABEL M. BEESON

One who had heard many testimonies given at Christian Science Wednesday evening testimony meetings once asked, "Just what do people mean when they speak of 'working in Christian Science' or of having 'worked' on a problem? What do they mean by 'work'? What do they do? Do they repeat certain things?" It all seemed a mystery to her.

When a Christian Scientist "works" he watches his thinking, to correct it, to change it, to bring it into submission to the law of God. "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret." To enter into the closet and close the door of his thinking to the false testimony of and belief in the material senses is what constitutes work to the Christian Scientist. To bring his thinking to the point of knowing the truth about God and His Christ, about man and the universe, is his "work." In order to bring this about he must sometimes labor long and hard to refute material sense testimony, to shut it out of his consciousness. This is his work. When this right thinking is manifested in human experience, we call the manifestation demonstration,—the result of our work. "Work out your own salvation," says Paul. Demonstration follows the application of understanding. To understand is to know; to know is to perceive; to perceive is the outcome of desire; and Mrs. Eddy says in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 1), "Desire is prayer." "Working," then, is prayer, is it not?

Mrs. Eddy says, "God rests in action" (Science and Health, p. 519). Can, then, the mental activity of a working Christian Scientist cause him to become wearied, depleted, or fatigued? To credit or even listen to the false testimony of material belief is what makes work burdensome for every student of Christian Science. To begin to work means, then, definitely and specifically to seek to know the truth about a special problem or condition presented, and to deny the false sense-testimony in regard to it.

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