Purpose and Perseverance
It is almost inevitable that somewhere along the journey from sense to Soul the student of Christian Science will ask himself, as the rich young man asked Jesus, "What lack I yet?" It may be that he has failed in some instance to prove what he has accepted as true in the teachings of Christian Science. Or it may be that through reading Scriptural accounts of the glorious healing works done by Jesus, he has been quickened with the desire to follow more closely in the Master's footsteps. In either case such self-questioning marks a moment of unfoldment. Whatever it may disclose, one who has glimpsed the grand truths of Christian Science will not, like the young man, turn sorrowfully away, bound by false material belief. Rather will he lift his thought with joy to the contemplation of God's perfect spiritual nature, and so perceive that man, the son of God, lacks nothing.
Perception of the omnipresence of spiritual good brings to light the falsities of material belief, hidden in the darkness of mortal thought. This mental activity is sometimes referred to as an "uncovering." While such uncovering is a step in demonstration, it does not constitute demonstration. Error must be seen as error to be destroyed, but merely uncovering its claim does not destroy it. In the last analysis the only claim error can make is that God good is absent. Since it is impossible for omnipresence and absence to coexist, one need only be conscious of the presence of God, and one's own reflection of God, to obliterate any claim of His absence, or the absence of His attributes.
In the history of the children of Israel the character of Moses stands out in bold relief because, in the words of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, he "illustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed by immortal Mind;" and his achievement was this, that he "advanced a nation to the worship of God in Spirit instead of matter" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 200 ). In our day Mrs. Eddy was healed through her receptivity to what immortal Mind bestows. Like Moses at the burning bush, she turned away from materiality, determined to see this great thing, and she heard and obeyed the divine command to lead humanity out of bondage.
As we study these two instances of richly fruitful lives, we perceive that a mere longing to realize more fully the perfection of man as God's image, and to prove that "now are we the sons of God," is not enough. Each one must listen for the divine command, and, having heard it, obey it with purpose and perseverance.
There is a material concept that relates purpose to human will, but true purpose is reflection of the divine will, and is the companion of humility. Like a faithfully followed pattern, clearly defined purpose enable one to detect and eliminate whatever is extraneous to it. Or we may, perhaps, think of purpose as a goal toward which we must walk without hesitation or deviation. In that case our purpose must be clearly defined, in order that we shall not stray and have to retrace our footsteps—to avoid frustration. Though conscious of a clear and exalted purpose, one must keep moving constantly in conformity with it, if one would reach the goal. For this achievement one needs perseverance. A well-known writer referred to perseverance as a "resistless force," and its practice certainly advances the individual's progress and accomplishment. Perseverance is allied to courage and to unfaltering trust in God.
Is not this unfaltering trust is God spiritually enlightened faith, the faith that gives power to our understanding of Him? As recorded in the Gospels, Jesus figuratively used the tiniest of seeds to illustrate how small a measure of faith is required in order to accomplish the uprooting of a sycamine tree or the moving of a mountain. In the light of Christian Science, the mountain we have to remove may be some difficult problem, a problem of environment or human relationship, and the sycamine tree we have to uproot may be the errors embedded in our consciousness. When our brother man's true selfhood is seen by the eye of faith as uninterruptedly perfect, the mountain of personal sense disappears. When the omnipotent word of Truth is heard by the ear of faith, one says with authority to ignorant superstitions, whose roots are perhaps embedded in the belief of family or racial inheritance, "Be thou plucked up by the root," and, in the words of Jesus, "It obey you."
Living in obedience to spiritual law, as it is revealed in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, we shall find ourselves rejoicing in the conscious possession and utilization of "the grand human capacities of being bestowed by immortal Mind." By purification of thought and childlike trust in God, individual consciousness is prepared to receive ever higher revelation. There is great need for such preparation. since only he that is true can recognize Truth, only he that is loving can understand Love.
As we consciously entertain the grand qualities of purpose and perseverance, courage and faith, our capacities are enhanced, and our thought rises to a clearer vision of what Mind bestows. And this continues until, in the words of Paul, "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
