Article October 29, 1927 Issue

"Now is the accepted time"

ALINE POWERS DUKE

It is sometimes said to those who have been reared in Christian Science: "If only the same privilege had been mine, I am sure I would not have had so much to meet!" A student of Christian Science who had heard this statement many times, turned to our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and found on page 26 this illuminating sentence: "While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with gratitude for what he did for mortals,—treading alone his loving pathway up to the throne of glory, in speechless agony exploring the wayfor us,—yet Jesus spares us not one individual experience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed through divine Love."

Truly none have greater cause for gratitude than those who since childhood have been taught to build upon the solid foundation of Truth as revealed in Christian Science; but this by no means relieves them from having to prove their understanding of the Christ, Truth. The Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings are replete with statements which show the necessity for solving the problem of being individually. The pathway becomes joyous only as we are constantly alert to the privilege that now is ours of having divine Principle upon which to lean, of having established rules for solving our problems, of having ever with us the loving Father-Mother God to whom the belief of time, with its seeming limitations, is unknown. The cross of discouragement becomes the crown of rejoicing when we realize that all that ever seems to suffer is false material belief, which is never real.

The parable of the laborers in the vineyard, found in the twentieth chapter of Matthew, contains many helpful lessons for those struggling with discouragement, self-pity, and regret. There we find the householder employing laborers early in the morning, at the third hour, the sixth, and the ninth. Even as late as the eleventh hour the householder goes out, and finding willing workers idle for lack of employment, hires them. "When even was come," each laborer received the same reward for his work, those who went out early and those who came as late as the eleventh hour. The former "murmured against the goodman of the house" for such impartiality; but this wise and just man replied, "Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee."

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