Article April 6, 1929 Issue

The Preparation of the Heart

DOROTHY ANN LOVELL

Throughout the Scriptures may be found numerous references to the necessity for being prepared. So much stress, indeed, has been laid upon this special form of activity that it may be well to ponder the exact meaning of the word "preparation," and to ask ourselves whether we are giving it sufficient consideration. It is a fact that until one is willing, he cannot receive; for preparation and reception go together. The world has long been taught to prepare for a future salvation, for some far-distant and rather nebulous heaven. It has been taught also to submit willingly to any amount of present troubles in the hope that through patient endurance a rich reward might accrue. The reward, however, as we learn in Christian Science, is not a long way off: it is a salvation that may be experienced here and now, even a change from a material to a spiritual basis of thinking; which change leads to complete harmony. It is the human consciousness which needs to be prepared; and this preparation our Leader speaks of in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 115) as a "pressing need."

Every day, every hour, every minute, the loyal Christian Scientist endeavors to turn out of his thinking all that is not true, and to open wide his heart to receive the Christ, the divine idea, that he may be lifted out of material beliefs. It is education and especially the development of spiritual sense which give the needed inspiration. Mrs. Eddy explains it thus in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 596): "The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High."

Sometimes in our work it may seem that, in spite of all our efforts, we have failed. Should this claim of failure try to assert itself, let us remember that good cannot fail, and that failure in material ways and means may be a preparation for the reception of spiritual ideas. Every loss of this world's satisfactions makes room for heavenly supplies. Whatever is unlike good must be dispensed with, for it is unreal and chokes the growth of spiritual understanding.

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