Article December 3, 1927 Issue

Spontaneity and Inspiration

PAULINE JEFFERY

"Spontaneity" is defined as a "quality or state of acting or proceeding from native feeling, proneness or temperament, without constraint or external force;" and "spontaneous" emphasizes the idea of an inner impulse or energy acting without external stimulus. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 597), defines "wilderness" in part thus: "Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."

Spontaneity speaks of eagerness, joy, hope, and confidence. Do not we recall with joy that spontaneous enthusiasm we had when the truth first appeared to us? How joyous and light-hearted we felt then! Our feet never lagged; we were as if on wings, mentally singing and dancing! Why is it, after we have journeyed awhile, that we have sometimes found the way long and weary, and our feet dragging, unless it be that we have left our "first love," as John writes—unless we have lost that first spontaneous enthusiasm which was so much a part of our first vision of spiritual realities?

"Spontaneity of thought and idea" prevents the student from getting into a rut. Someone has wisely said that "spiritual progress involves a constant change of habits," and that "inspirational living is not at first habitual but spontaneous." This is a clarion call to right activity.

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