Article September 20, 1941 Issue

Uninterrupted Progress

ROBERT LAUNCESTON PULTON

War on a wide scale claims to extend an adverse influence, politically and economically, into many parts of the world, with the result that the careers of vast numbers of persons may be seriously interrupted. Among difficulties experienced are closed businesses, interference with students' courses of study, loss of trading facilities and seasonal opportunity, abrupt termination of associations of many years' standing, calls to fulfill duties for which individuals seem to be unsuited, to say nothing of the difficulties of the many thousands who find themselves temporarily homeless. Nevertheless, to all these evil conditions and changes in the lives of individuals and nations, Christian Science offers a practical and powerful antidote.

On page 265 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "The senses represent birth as untimely and death as irresistible, as if man were a weed growing apace or a flower withered by the sun and nipped by untimely frosts; but this is true only of a mortal, not of a man in God's image and likeness." Those whose normal careers have been interrupted by untimely circumstances find these words a very comforting reminder that we should not think of man as a mortal, but as the immortal image and likeness of God, eternal Life, never beginning and never ending, and including nothing which is not spiritual, inspiring, and perfect.

The fear of an interrupted career will cease when the individual realizes that in his real selfhood he is not allotted a limited period which he believes to be his life, including youth, manhood, and old age, preparation, fulfillment, retirement, and death, which may prematurely end his activities before his purposes are fulfilled. Because mortals believe that time is a controlling influence in their lives, they fear that if they devote time to some activity other than that originally planned, something will have been taken out of their life which can never be replaced, and which therefore will represent total or partial loss. We read in the Bible, however, "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten."

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