Article December 31, 1932 Issue

The Fruit of Our Labor

BESS O'MELVENY MAC MAUGH

There is a human tendency to expect evil instead of good. The expectation of good rather than its opposite—evil—was one of the revolutionary steps our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, took, and pointed out to others as necessary, in metaphysical thinking. Even prayerful people had become accustomed to look upon the promises of the Bible with faint hope instead of with a definite expectancy of any present manifestation of the power of God, good.

Throughout the ages false theology and fear have built up a mythical mental condition which needs to be transformed. It had long been said that great artists rarely lived to see the fruition of their work. Were not the good supposed to die young? Was it not sometimes feared that those we had nourished might turn against us? Was not evil supposed to flourish in a greater degree than good? As for the overburdened righteous man, his only reward was in heaven, a supposed place of mystery beyond this realm of existence. Such is the maelstrom of false beliefs associated with hatred, resentment, and injustice. Many times, as we look about us, some phase of false material theory appears to be true; but, as in the case of sickness, we should not allow this dream to appear real in any instance, and as students of Christian Science should guard our consciousness from the superstitious fear that we ourselves shall not profit here and now from good works.

By applying the Principle of Christian healing we can prove that we do not labor in vain, that there is a right place for our employment, and that progress will attend our footsteps. These results will come into our experience when we expect good to triumph rather than evil; when we dismiss superstitious fears, which would obstruct its manifestation and replace false, material sense with spiritual sense. We find that the Revelator visioned the real universe, where God reigns supreme; and of his concept of this new heaven and new earth Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 573): "This is Scriptural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence,—that we can become conscious, here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science."

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