Article January 7, 1928 Issue

Requiring the Past

MARY F. KINGSTON

Relying on the promise that "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him," we can have no misgivings concerning our loving Father's ability and willingness to hear and answer the cry of genuine repentance. Nevertheless, mankind has spent many a golden hour in depths of remorse very far removed from actual repentance. Because we may have failed to attain or to maintain our highest hopes, we should never indulge in empty bemoaning of our fate, or in the relaxing of our vigilance. We can always make seeming defeat an opportunity for glorious demonstration, if we will but work out the problem under God's direction.

Paul, who had committed grievous mistakes, came to loathe his wrongdoing. He knew the sin that so easily beset him, and so he recognized that everybody finds himself face to face some time or other with various forms of sin—deceit, jealousy, hatred, resentment, revenge, sensitiveness, anger, petulance, quick temper, selfishness, sensuality. Uncovering the tactics of mortal mind, this great Christian admonished us consciously to look to Jesus as our example. He knew that the only way to overcome and destroy evil is to follow Christ, Truth—by walking humbly and obediently in the footsteps of our Master.

The laying aside of weights, of the encumbrances of the flesh, takes consecration and the earnest application of Christian Science. But one thing is certain: the conscious desire and honest endeavor to rid one's self of error will bring freedom. We know that when we find ourselves carrying a lot of mortal mind's excess baggage, we can, as Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 393), "rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good." Therein lies our hope.

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