Article December 11, 1937 Issue

Precious Moments

[Original article in German]

JAKOB MATTENBERGER

Time, according to material sense, is like a continuous stream, seeming to run by us, sometimes swiftly, sometimes slowly, according to the way we look at it. The day that has gone by, so to speak, belongs to the past, and cannot be brought back. The future, on the other hand, is not yet here. Of the greatest importance, then, is the moment of which we are now conscious. This is the moment of our knowing and acting, and we do well to use it in such a way as will redound with blessing, bringing us a step forward in our understanding of Life and reality. Not what happened before or will happen in the near or distant future, but the good that we express each moment, by reflecting God, molds our course into the demonstration of spiritual perfection.

The realm of our thinking is the realm of our experience. Furthermore, we know that to the earnest seeker is given superabundantly, through this Science, the ability to think scientifically about all things. Therefore, to brood over sin, sickness, and other inharmonies, or to concern oneself unduly with the affairs of mortal existence, is not only a waste of precious time, but also a failure to utilize our divine ability to think correctly, that is, according to divine Principle. Even a momentary deviation from true thinking is both unnecessary and unprofitable. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 323), "If 'faithful over a few things,' we shall be made rulers over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost." We must, therefore, keep our thoughts at all times in harmony with divine truth. Good deeds then normally follow, and from moments and hours of this faithful work ensues the only worthy state of the Christian—a blessed, hallowed life.

If we abide in God, He abides with us, and in the consciousness of His holy presence we shall use what is called time to the best advantage. If, for instance, apparent loss of health or business failure threatens us, we shall refuse to ruminate on these phenomena, since the longer they are turned over in the despairing thought the bigger they seem. When so tempted, we shall lift our thought at once to the divine All-power, for there is neither place nor opportunity for sickness and failure in the infinitude and perfection of God, good. If—not merely in great events, but also in the minutest detail of our individual affairs—we hold understandingly and unswervingly to the fact that God's spiritual law governs His entire creation harmoniously, any hypothetical case of sickness or sin will be resolved into nothingness. And as far as the threat of failure is concerned, this corrective spiritual law, governing our consciousness, will reveal to us the practical way in which harmonious conditions can be restored.

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