Editorial March 30, 1929 Issue

Seizing Opportunities

Violet Ker Seymer

The gift of opportunity is equally present for everyone, and it multiplies through use. Many people regard opportunity as relating solely to outward conditions, such as increased salary, the purchase of property, extended influence, all of which may indeed be legitimate when accompanied by good motives. But Mrs. Eddy presents opportunity from a different angle when, on page 249 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," she writes, "Improve every opportunity to correct sin through your own perfectness."

Even though one's foes should be "they of his own household," the Christian Scientist does not look without, but within, in his own thinking, for the opportunity to overcome the mortal beliefs which are the foes of God, good. The carnal so-called mind, however, which is always ready to put forth plausible excuses, may suggest that one's own growth would be more rapid if one were not handicapped by environment or by the prejudice, the domination, the lack of high standard of other members of the family with whom one constantly associates. Here Christian Science makes appeal to honesty of thought, and bids one realize that in truth he is an individual idea in divine Mind, and that only through his own consent can he be hindered from demonstrating his relationship with God, good. The honest thinker does not rest, therefore, until he can completely exonerate both environment and individuals of any responsibility for his own backwardness. Since no Christian Scientist can by proxy do the growing for another, so no individual can hinder one's own growth. Just as bravely as the tendrils of the honeysuckle wind upward, often through a network of thorns, so the thoughts of the Christian Scientist reach out to God, even though his pathway through life may seem to be a thorny one. So, also, one learns to forgive wrong, and seeks in divine Love the cancellation of all error. "May God give unto us all that loving sense of gratitude which delights in the opportunity to cancel accounts" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 131).

The teaching of Christian Science thus provides for no brooding over falsity, no morbid introspection, no harboring of resentment. It demands honest recognition of the errors that have been committed by one's self or another, and then the prompt and persistent rejection of these errors. For every mistaken view there is the true view, and the Christian Scientist seeks to keep his mental outlook free, unsullied.

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