Article February 19, 1938 Issue

Persistence

ALEXANDER I. ANISCHENCO

In our efforts to accomplish some task, we are often handicapped by obstacles which appear insurmountable; and patient work on the subject in question, together with persistent effort to arrive at our goal, requires much time. In the meantime we may perhaps be assailed with doubts, a sense of indifference, or even with a feeling of desperation as to the possibility of achieving what we have set out to do. Our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 230), "Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon the improvement of moments more than upon any other one thing." Also, in the Gospel of Luke we read how our great Master showed his followers the necessity of praying importunately and persistently, and of understanding that it is man's right to have the support and help of his heavenly Father. By parables and similitudes Christ Jesus admonishes us not to despair or to weary in our efforts to reach our goal. He bids us to go forward, watching and praying, and not to weaken on the way.

The prophet Isaiah says: "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

One who came to Christian Science seeking the healing of his son, had to wait a very long time, it seemed to him, for this healing. The son was at that time in a military hospital, and his case was pronounced incurable.

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