The New Year
The old year has passed, with its record of stirring events, its reports of startling and significant happenings, its tidings of war and commotion amongst nations. The New Year has dawned, with unfathomed possibilities for the welfare and spiritual enlightenment of humanity. The threshold of the dawning year is surely a milestone where Christian Scientists may pause to measure their progress Spiritward, heavenward, grateful for victories over evil, as they look backward to behold the ever-receding shores of materiality and false belief. They also look forward to the attainment of increased understanding and demonstration in Christian Science. Their thoughts are outspanned to glimpse limitless spiritual regions of ever-present yet ever-unfolding good for all God's children. On page 330 of "Miscellaneous Writings," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has written: "It is good to talk with our past hours, and learn what report they bear, and how they might have reported more spiritual growth. With each returning year, higher joys, holier aims, a purer peace and diviner energy, should freshen the fragrance of being."
Christian Scientists through their healing ministry are indeed exemplifying this teaching, but at the present time there is need for further consecrated effort in this direction. A strife-torn world is calling for the help which Christian Scientists can give through their understanding of the truth which destroys evil, revealing its nothingness and the ever-presence of God, good.
The earthly career of the great Exemplar was spiritually progressive, culminating in his crowning victory over death, and in his ascension beyond material sight. His followers also must be spiritually progressive, not alone through faith, but as the result of spiritually scientific understanding gained in Christian Science.
The trail of war, with its devastating accompaniments, has spread over a great part of the earth. Because evil seems to be unleashed, Christian Scientists may sometimes be tempted with the aggressive suggestion of war weariness. Jesus foresaw and foretold what the carnal mind would attempt under such conditions when he said, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Yet he said, "When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."
The admonition of Paul is of significant import today: "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." There is today an awakening in receptive thought to the consideration of spiritual values. Above the din and clamor of battle there are soaring daily, from the hearts of thousands, earnest prayers that God's way may be manifested in a just cessation of hostilities. The employment of material means, needful as they are in the present state of the world, will never solve the problem of evil or eliminate the possibility of war. The many activities instituted for the purpose of providing relief and comforts for those who are facing danger and hardship are beneficent and beneficial, right and righteous. But these efforts will not of themselves put an end to material strife and conflict.
Christian Science, revealing the truth of being, alone can show how universal peace is to be realized. On page 450 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy has written, "The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good." The faithful fulfillment of human obligations is expected of Christian Scientists, but the routine of material duties does not constitute the all of life and being. Human goodness will not accomplish individual spiritual regeneration, nor will the mere suppression of evil accomplish evil's destruction.
The overcoming of the errors of the human mind through the understanding that the real man is spiritual and perfect, made in the divine image and likeness, is the work in which Christian Scientists are continuously engaged. As a result of this overcoming, human duties are more easily and more efficiently accomplished. Warfare will be impossible when the strife of personal animosities and dissensions, when the illusions of greed, hate, envy, revenge, with all the false beliefs of the carnal mind, are eliminated from individual thinking and living. Spiritual growth unfolds an ever-increasing desire to rise into higher and holier altitudes of thought, to commune more closely and more constantly with God, and to help all humanity into the realization of man's heritage of health, joy, and freedom.
Christian Science brings the understanding that evil is unreal, and that good is the only reality. Malicious animal magnetism, hypnotic control, astrological superstitions are unknown to God, omnipotent good, who governs man and the universe. The understanding and demonstration of these facts is the Christianly scientific work which is shortening the evil days, purifying and spiritualizing human thought, and hastening the universal realization of the brotherhood of man. Thus will each New Year unfold the ever-present glories of the new heaven and the new earth in the divine consciousness of spiritual being, until time shall be no more. On page 599 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Eternity is God's measurement of Soul-filled years."
