IN childhood some of us may have found the enforced strict observance of the Sabbath rather irksome, although it created a wholesome respect for the teachings of the Bible, especially those of our Master, Christ Jesus. In later years, after finding Christian Science with its glad teachings, and while yet but little understanding them, we may have felt that such arduous observance was not required by our Master, and may have gone to the other extreme. Speaking of this tendency of mortal thought, Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.552), "Thought, loosened from a material basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild with freedom and so self-contradictory."

Some years ago in the Sun Dial column of The Christian Science Monitor there appeared a story of an Easterner who trekked to California in 1849. It seems that he started with a group of friends, and that in their eagerness to reach the coveted gold fields before the thousands that followed, they drove as hard and as long each day as possible. It seemed to them unwise to waste any time resting along the way, and when Sunday came the entire company continued on their journey with the exception of this man, who had always observed the Sabbath and could not be persuaded to discontinue its observance.

After resting each Sunday he joined new groups along the way, and it was not long before he began to notice that his team was in better condition than were others. After a number of weeks, to his surprise he overtook the original company and traveled with them for a few days, until he found that the pace of their horses was too slow for his better rested team, and he went on ahead. He was working his claim in California many days before his friends arrived. This experience proved to him that there was much to be gained by observing the fourth commandment.

A point of interest to Christian Scientists in this recital is that the result should have been surprising to this reverently-minded man, for in Science we think of the Decalogue not as a list of prohibitions, but rather as protective laws. Seeing them in this light we naturally expect and receive the blessings which follow obedience to divine law.

Another instance of a blessing naturally following such obedience was proved at the Olympic games in 1924. A young man who was an earnest student of the Bible had won his way to the final heat in the four-hundred-meter race, but when he learned that the heat was to be run on a Sunday he refused to take part in it. Because of his objections, however, the day of the race was changed. Speaking later of his experience at the time he said that after he had placed himself at the starting line he was unable to hide from himself the fact that he was nervous about the result. The race had been postponed on his account, and he felt that more than the mere contest was at stake. Then one of the managers put a piece of paper into his hand. On this he read: "If any man serve me, him will my Father honour." The thought expressed in these words strengthened him, and soon afterward the stadium resounded with the enthusiasm caused by the establishing of a new world's record.

Christian Scientists obey the Ten Commandments because they love God's law. They know that obedience to Him can never deprive them of any good, or separate them from good. They know that only as they are obedient to their highest understanding of God's law can they experience good.

Standing at a congested corner we do not think that traffic laws are made to discipline or to restrain us, because we realize that at times it would be extremely difficult to cross the street unless the rules were obeyed; and we know, also, that these laws have not deprived us of our freedom to cross, but have made it possible for us to do so quickly and safely. Only as we obey the traffic laws can we expect protection from them; and so it is with our obedience to God's law.

True rest is not mere surcease from physical labor. True rest is found in spiritual thinking. As Mrs. Eddy has said in Science and Health (p. 218), "The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of repose in unconsciousness." How many times have Christian Scientists proved the truth of that statement! And how grateful we are that in times like ours, crowded with material duties, one day each week we may spend with our textbooks, pondering the truths that rest us, and gaining that spiritual understanding which blesses our labor throughout the entire week. But the greatest of our Sunday blessings is the privilege of attending our church services. Christian Scientists appreciate the Psalmist's joy when he sang, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." What a feast is prepared for us there, a spiritual feast for which the daily study of the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly has been preparing our thought! Because the spirit of Life, Truth, and Love rests on these services, none may leave without taking with them a blessing.

Christian Science instructs us that as the Ten Commandments are obeyed, literally and spiritually, both individuals and nations are blessed.