Article July 27, 1935 Issue

"This is the day"

JOHN L. MOTHERSHEAD

The motto, "Do it now," is found on desks in many business offices. When this admonition is carried out, it eliminates procrastination, and also the temptation to excuse oneself for putting off until tomorrow that which may be done today. Mortal mind is prone to dwell in thoughts of tomorrow, but Christian Science utters the clarion call of "today," and is thereby awakening many to activity, health, and success. One of the forceful statements of Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 39) is as follows: "'Now,' cried the apostle, 'is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,'—meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life."

The understanding of this nowness of good makes clear the fact that the day wherein to glorify God is this very one—today. Each morning we may arise with the glad assurance that today is filled with good, for it is God's day, and hence overflowing with joy and gladness. As God, the all-knowing and all-loving, has all power, there can be no doubt of what the day, so understood, has in store for us. It is not necessary to wait until some other time for joy. There is no time element in true joyousness, for it expresses awareness of God's presence.

Should a cloud obscure the mental horizon, this would indicated that a belief in the absence of God has been entertained. God, Spirit, is universally present. It is only the lie which seems to whisper to us that good is absent. This lie would also dim the brightness of our spiritual discernment with the subtle argument that we are not good enough, or wise enough, or perhaps pure enough to find God. And yet, as we are in reality His image and likeness, as we are now the children of God, why should we be willing to accept the argument that time must elapse before we can discern the presence of God and our true selfhood? The understanding of our position as Christian Scientists is founded on the statement by our Leader (ibid., p. 200): "The great truth in the Science of being, that the real man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike."

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