True Expectancy
On page 1 of her work "Pulpit and Press" Mrs. Eddy has written, "A new year is a nursling, a babe of time, a prophecy and promise clad in white raiment, kissed—and encumbered with greetings—redolent with grief and gratitude." It is indeed true that whatever may have been the nature of our human experiences—joy or sorrow, success or disappointment—each New Year is welcomed with bright expectancy, and is generally regarded as an occasion for the expression of kindly greetings to all those with whom we come in contact. Moreover, at this season there wells up in the hearts of most people a genuine desire for the welfare and prosperity of all mankind.
True expectancy is wholly apart from apprehensiveness of evil and fear of adverse happenings. Yet the optimistic human expectancy which hopes for the best, in a blind trust that good will come along somehow, has no assured foundation, and does not afford any protection from the vagaries of chance and change. Again, expectancy which looks and longs for the acquisition of greater material possessions and power is built upon the quicksand of a mistaken sense of substance, and can never, even if effectuated, bring into human experience enduring satisfaction.
Christian Science teaches mortals that they must look out and away from belief in the reality of matter and evil, in order to behold the real man and the eternal, ever-present, harmonious facts of his spiritual being. Students of Christian Science learn to reconstruct their mental outlook on the sure foundation of scientific spiritual understanding, which reveals the all-power and ever-presence of Spirit, God, good, and the consequent powerlessness, yea, the nothingness, of matter and evil. True expectancy springs from the understanding that God has only good to give in the inexhaustible flow and affluence of spiritual ideas. These ideas of truth and beauty are ever present, forever unfolding according to God's beneficent purpose for each of His children. Hence, man's reflection or expression of spiritual ideas, in "the beauty of holiness," constitutes his true substance and inheritance. One page 552 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy has written: "Mortals must emerge from this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward and upward."
Sin, disease, sorrow, adversity, hard times, and mere chance or what is called luck, do not come from God, and do not belong to the real man, made in God's image and likeness. These erroneous conditions are but the manifestations of the carnal mind, which, as Paul said, is "enmity against God." This so-called mind would mesmerize mortals into believing that evil is the inevitable concomitant of existence. Spiritual understanding as revealed in Christian Science, and individually applied, destroys the false beliefs and errors which constitute mortal selfhood.
As Christian Scientists express in their daily lives the beautiful qualities of wisdom, purity, honesty, compassion, humility, they realize improved conditions throughout their human activities. They experience better health, abundance of joy, and an abiding sense of security, peace, and freedom. To earnest, active Christian Scientists there comes with each new day glad expectancy of the unfolding and fulfillment of good. Mrs. Eddy has written (ibid., p. 261), "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts."
At the present time the machinations of evil, foaming in tyranny, cruelty, domination, oppression, would attempt to depress humanity with fears of impending ill, with forebodings of "wars and rumours of wars." How reassuring are the words of our Lord, who, when speaking to his disciples of latter-day difficulties, said, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
Christian Science, in accord with the teachings of the Way-shower, brings the glad assurance that, as the healing influence of this great truth permeates every channel of human thought, evil will rush to its doom of final self-destruction and complete oblivion.
The understanding of Christian Science, demonstrated through the spiritualization of individual thinking and living, is in these last times, shortening the days of evil and speeding the coming of that happy day when the nations will lay down their arms and the fratricide of war be no more.
Man's spiritual perfection and unity with God are intact. Good alone is real, eternal, and true; it is not merely a future possibility, but an ever-present fact. Hence, there is nothing "too good to be true." Surely, then, we may, with the glad expectancy of spiritual assurance, look for an early solution of individual and world problems, for the realization of the brotherhood of man, and for the establishment of universal and permanent peace.
"Nearer and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be.
When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea."
Copyright, 1937, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.
