Article May 27, 1944 Issue

"Our times and obligations"

DELOS EDWARD JOHNSON

Today each of us has the opportunity and responsibility of serving the cause of the United Nations either in the armed forces or in activity that contributes in some way to the war effort. Military training is rigorous and exacting. Work in factories and shipyards, the manufacturing of ordnance and supplies, demands complete accuracy. But is not this so in order that the goal of perfection may be achieved? And is not this goal consistent with the aims and desires of the student of Christian Science?

Consider what Mary Baker Eddy has written on page 176 of "Miscellaneous Writings": "But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith we are armored?" Surely he who is alert gives full obedience to officers or employer; devotes his best effort to preliminary military training or the execution of a military mission; maintains accuracy in the operation of a machine in an industrial plant, and preserves absolute loyalty to God.

It has been stated that the period called the depression was a general mental condition caused in part by the strong tendency of many to do only that which seemed easy or that which they liked to do. For example, it is well known that at the beginning of the present conflict there existed in this country a deficiency of qualified young mathematicians, primarily because mathematics had been a difficult subject for many people to comprehend and because its importance to human welfare had not been generally recognized.

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