Determination is a state of thought and discloses character, working for good or ill according to the motive and will which actuate it. Let no one allow another's determination, whether in opposition or in support of his own, to affect his own initiative. Nothing can undermine or deflect the resolution of him who knows that his cause is right; nor on the other hand should support from outside be who waits upon Principle for his wisdom and protection. In these words did Shakespeare exhort humanity:

Determination accompanied by threatening and violence had marked the career of Paul before it was disclosed to him that such were not the methods of intelligence or greatness. Up to that moment he had known mastery; he had swept triumphantly on his way, at enmity with all who opposed him. But now he was to learn of that spirit in man which is patient in the face of persecution and in the presence of defect; which in gentleness reveals invincibility. "For I am determined," he declard, "not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."

The life of Jesus, inspired by Love, dedicated to the service of humanity, built upon the Science of being, revealed to Mary Baker Eddy the completeness and magnitude of his accomplishment. She called upon her followers to abide not the radiance of that which overcomes it. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes (p. 200), "Christian Science says: I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him glorified."

With this determination, men can go forward in dauntless courage and confidence, whatever the grimness and violence threatening their security and happiness; whetever the bragging horror of evil forces. Determination built upon the true meaning of faith and understanding is the certainty of glory which no shadow can darken, no passing defeat can lessen.

In this hour of humanity's crucifixion, men can be aware that every courageous, selfless thought, every deed of valor and of sacrifice, every willingness to endure, that right may take the place of wrong, is the inner evidence of glory. Christ Jesus told his followers there was a cross to be taken up; but it was not the cross of shame, of defeat, of annihilation. It was the cross which brings with it the opportunity to prove that Love and Life do triumph over hatred and death. And thereby all mankind may bear witness to the dominion of good, the resurrection and the ascension, the proof of evil's powerlessness to rob man of his birthright.

In every initial and developing stage of human experience, men need steadfastness of faith; they need patience and wisdom, lest desire outrun demonstration. Wholly reliable, when relied upon with understanding, is the divine way. And in this great immutable determination to take the side of Principle in every undertaking men learn to lay hold of that which can alone be glorified. Today it is being seen that there can be no halfway, no uncertain, shifting standpoint. At this supremely crucial hour of the world's history, the evidence in fact and in demonstration can be ours that glory belongs to man.

The focusing point of Christian Science is resolutely and inexorably defined by Mrs. Eddy in these words on page 19 of her Message for 1902: "Then, Christian Scientists, trust, and trusting, you will find divine Science glorified the cross and crowns the association with our Saviour in his life of love."

Primary in the call to duty and self-sacrifice is willingness to take up the cross, whatever, wherever it be. And having taken it up, not in the sadness of renunciation, in the absurdity of self-pity, but in steadfast confidence that the way is upward, resurrecting, continuously ascending—how surely, with every act of righteous initiative and true self-assertion, will the glory appear. Only he is robbed of the radiance of spiritual being, which Jesus first among all men revealed to humanity, in its completeness, who does not know himself because he has not yet glimpsed the Christ; because the import of the Master's mission and his own relationship with it have not yet appeared.

Not by mere adoption or adoration do men forsake the inconclusive, the conjectural, the tragically unattainable. Setting aside all that is indeterminate in taking up the cross, they learn that they have found the way of freedom—freedom from disease, freedom from all forms of slavery, from fears present and to come. They find a glory that is not remote and unrelated, but known now in human and spiritual experience. They learn in steadfast resolution, in clarity of perception, in willing self-surrender, to endure; they come into the presence of that joy and peace where both cross and crown are glorified.

Evelyn F. Heywood