Editorial September 7, 1946 Issue

Hold Fast That Thou Hast

Margaret Morrison

"Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." No counsel is more pertinent to the student of Christian Science or fraught with more wisdom than this of the Revelator's in his message to the church of Philadelphia. What is this, to which one must hold fast? Surely the vision of the Christ, Truth, and the spiritual understanding of its demonstrable power. No matter how slight that understanding may seem to be, how dim the light of vision, one must hold fast the least gleam which he has that it may grow and glow in ever-increasing splendor and power.

One holds fast that which he has and keeps his crown of joy in demonstration only as, through understanding of spiritual ideas and qualities, he increases his holdings of love and intelligence, joy and peace, accepting and reflecting the Mind of Christ. He thus learns to distinguish and reject the claims of sense even when they come in the beguiling guise of good, offering substance, intelligence, pleasure, even life itself, in matter. One may not rest content with holding fast just enough to "get by with," to keep himself comfortable and harmonious in his so-called human living. The spiritual holding must ever increase unto the perfect day of Spirit and conscious reflected spirituality.

Sometimes one's crown seems to have been hardly won, in the midst of mortal mind's most confusing, tempting, and terrifying aspects. Many Christian Science students, for example, have gone through the deeply testing time of modern warfare, and have come through the battle with clear eyes and strong hearts, wearing the crown of victory. They have seen disease healed, disaster averted, the claim of death annulled, through demonstration of the scientific Christianity they have been taught. To these is reiterated strongly the wise counsel of old, "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."

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