Article May 29, 1926 Issue

Individual Responsibility

HILDA MARY STEPHENSON

In the business world, the success of a factory largely depends on the care each of the employees takes to do his work well, and on the intelligent and appreciative interest they all have in the finished article, which represents the vision of the employer and the externalization of that vision by each one employed in the manufacture of it. The work of each is necessary to the perfecting of the whole; and as each one recognizes this, he brings joy into his work. He has the protection of the firm, because he and it are mutually indispensable. He has a friend in every worker, because their interests are in common. No one would absent himself without reason from his work, as this would take from the harmony of the whole and be a loss to himself. Since his heart is in his work, he is learning valuable lessons all the time as ideas come to him, showing him ways in which he may improve.

If that be so in mundane affairs, how much more necessary is it for each individual who becomes a member of a Church of Christ, Scientist, to recognize the importance of the work which, on his taking this step, immediately opens up to him. It is perhaps the most important step he has ever taken. And it is just as important to him as the step whereby he may become a Reader or a lecturer. If his desire to become a church member is sincere, it is because he has learned to unite himself with God, and to give Him full allegiance. Having seen human systems and theories fail to bring about lasting peace, he begins to appreciate what is written on page 106 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love." He sees that as God is the only Mind or intelligence, God alone can guide him rightly; and so he seeks that divine guidance and protection. In doing this, he acknowledges his sonship with God, and immediately available to him are all the benefits of that glorious heritage. There flows out to him a fresh understanding of Life, Truth, and Love, manifested in health and peace. The brotherhood of man unfolds, and he feels himself surrounded by Love's protecting care. He has taken his first steps on the road to the fulfillment of the divine command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;" and the Love which has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," will care for him all the way, even until he finishes his journey and knows as he is known. He loses the doubts and fears which belief of life in matter inevitably inculcates, and his joy and gratitude know no bounds, his one thought being, What can I do in return?

The church member learns through Christian Science that God is divine Mind, and that one can serve God only by appropriating and using the ideas which express Him, or which are included in that Mind. As in the factory, individual and collective progress and harmony lie in being obedient to the pattern given by the head of it, so in a Christian Science church each and all can be benefited and harmony maintained only as each brings his thinking into accord with God, divine Mind, or, in other words, as each puts on the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." The Mind which is our Father-Mother is the divine Love of which our Leader writes on pages 132 and 133 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany": "It binds up the broken-hearted; heals the poor body, whose whole head is sick, and whose whole heart is faint; comforts such as mourn, wipes away the unavailing, tired tear, brings back the wanderer to the Father's house in which are many mansions, many welcomes, many pardons for the penitent."

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