"Wilt thou climb?"

ALICE D. WESTON

All nature, as seen through the mist of human vision, raises and answers questions. The unfolding rosebud expands in the soft air and sunshine. The tempest importunes the young birch tree, which gives its resilient reply. The slender sapling, bending before the elements, is a type of meek obedience and right endurance, and serves to strengthen one's patient steadfastness in the truth. The questionings of mortals sometimes demand, What of the seeker after Truth, stirred by an impulse to leave old ways in quest of new, who looks up and asks, "What must I do to be saved?" The answer is that the blessings of divine Love and goodness, gently leading thought onward, expand in the honest heart and fulfill human hope.

In "An Allegory" in "Miscellaneous Writings," beginning on page 323, Mary Baker Eddy has presented the situation of mortals, driven by calamities out of all satisfaction in worldly living. One of them is pictured as having arrived at the point of meekly and hopefully seeking heavenly guidance. "The Stranger," who had entered the valley where a few were watching for his coming, and who at length found the penitent one, gently commended him for having chosen the blessings of the upward path.

To the plea of the penitent one "the Stranger" made answer by asking a question so comprehensive and consummate in its penetration that those who would lift their lives above the destructive level of materiality cannot give it too much thought and attention (ibid., p. 327): "Wilt thou climb the mountain, and take nothing of thine own with thee?" As there comes a time in the life of everyone when Truth asks this question, let us consider it and see if we may answer in the affirmative, as did the desolate one who had voluntarily withdrawn from the pleasures and pains of material sense to seek that which is spiritual and enduring.

"Take nothing of thine own with thee"! Obviously, this means no worldly policy, no material wealth, no human ambition, no desire for fame, no personal sense of achievement, no pride in self, no preconceived and circumscribed creeds, no matter how dear and habitual, which misinterpret and evade the divine demands. Is there, perhaps, a finite human sense of love that is hardest of all to leave? Oh, surrender it early, and if the Father put it back into thine hand transmuted and glorified, give joyful thanks—but do not withhold it! Did not Jesus say, when instructing Peter and other disciples on an occasion just preceding the transfiguration, "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it"?

Through the process called spiritual awakening one comes to realize the rhythm and harmony of perfect selflessness. Awakening thought yearns toward the high and holy realm where true selfhood shall ultimately be found. In growing toward this realization lies the only possible happiness, the only path to peace. Since God does so much better for us than we can do for ourselves, why not make surrender of our will to His a grace instead of a grim duty? Why not take this parting from an unreal selfhood simply and naturally, letting divine Love bear us onward even as the sea gull lets itself be borne on the wind?

In order to discover that we are in reality God's children we must climb the path from that which appears to be to that which eternally is. It is the high privilege of those who have accepted the teachings of Christ Jesus and their elucidation in Christian Science to demonstrate omniaction here and now, in spiritual soaring and singing; to shed the fragrance of gratitude, as does the arbutus, rising though the snow. Our Leader has said in her beautiful appreciation of nature called "Voices of Spring" (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 331, 332): "As mortals awake from their dream of material sensation, this adorable, all-inclusive God, and all earth's hieroglyphics of Love, are understood; and infinite Mind is seen kindling the stars, rolling the worlds, reflecting all space and Life,—but not life in matter. Wisely governing, informing the universe, this Mind is Truth,—not laws of matter. Infinitely just, merciful, and wise, this Mind is Love,—but not fallible love."

"Nothing of thine own"? Truly to take nothing of the mortal is to gain all. It is wisdom and love that give the tender thought seedling strength to pierce the dark confines of self and to attain light and growth. To answer this question in the affirmative, solemnly understanding, adoringly assenting to its loving exactions, is life's crowing glory. Sacrifice thus blossoms into beauty and fulfillment. Clouds are swept away, mists dissolve in that crystalline clearness which hides nothing from the gaze of him who walks along the narrow upward path where angel thoughts beckon.

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"And not only yourselves"

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