Article February 2, 1929 Issue

"The substance of all devotion"

HAZEL W. ALQUIST

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 241), "The substance of all devotion is the reflection and demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and destroying sin." This statement informs us what true devotion is, in that its substance is reflected love. And somewhere along the way of mental awakening, the student of Christian Science perceives the need for greater love.

Prodigal thought, wandering from obedience to God through riotous mortal thinking, remains hungry for the truth until it returns and seeks to abide in the Father's house, the consciousness of good, where it finds spiritual food in abundance. As Truth is unfolded to repentant thought, there comes the desire to help others. Praying each day the "Daily Prayer" given in the Manual of The Mother Church (p. 41) brings inspiration, keeps thought from wandering from Truth, and encourages us to cast out evil, false, and wasteful thoughts, in order that we may assist in enriching the experience of mankind.

The slothful thinker, like the slothful servant in Jesus' parable, who buried his talent in the earth, buries his best sense of good in material thinking, when he should reflect it in demonstration, that it may yield increase to himself and to others. This type of thought is fearful because it "is not made perfect in love," and so it loses the opportunity to gain greater understanding through serving others. But the individual who is spiritually awake sees the opportunity to serve God and the duty and privilege of enriching his neighbor, also, by "healing sickness and destroying sin."

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