Article March 19, 1927 Issue

"Doers of the word"

ALMA R. MC KENNEY

In connection with Christian Science we hear people sometimes say, "How can I keep out wrong thoughts?" The answer may be found on page 15 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where Mrs. Eddy says, "We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love." We can prevent wrong thoughts from entering and taking root in our consciousness by being alert and guarding our mental portals with vigilance. The more awake and alert we are, the more quickly we can reject the mortal thoughts which knock for admittance. To watch is to cling close to God; and by uplifting and purifying our thinking we become a clearer transparency for His light, and are learning to practice God's Word more fully.

To the average person who understands something of Christian Science, the word "practitioner" conveys the thought of one who has his name registered in The Christian Science Journal; but according to a dictionary definition, a practitioner is "one engaged in the actual practice of any profession." Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 174): "Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised." And on page 201 she writes, "The best sermon ever preached is Truth practised and demonstrated by the destruction of sin, sickness, and death." All, therefore, who understand Christian Science, even in a degree, and put into practice what they know, are practitioners; for Christian Science practice consists of reflecting Godlike thoughts, thus reducing to nothing all thoughts that are unlike the divine.

We have the promise of the Master, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." In this promise we have the full assurance that everyone—not one here and there, but everyone—who sincerely seeks the truth will find it. Christian Scientists have not yet attained to perfect holiness or wholeness, but each honest student of Christian Science finds proof in his daily experience that through desire for righteousness and spiritualized thinking he is better than he used to be, because he is striving to be a doer of the word, and not a hearer only. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

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Human Needs
March 19, 1927
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