One who accepts responsibility has the opportunity to choose between expressing calmness and order and feeling anxious and crowded. The timid or self-centered draw back from its demands or pass by on the other side. The conscientious, accepting these demands, too often bear them as a heavy burden.

Responsibility is defined in part as "that for which one is answerable; a duty, trust, or obligation." True responsibility involves fulfillment and is necessarily linked to a divine source. Why, then, is it so often side-stepped on the one hand or laboriously borne on the other? Because of a misapprehension as to where true responsibility lies, and whence it receives its inspiration, strength, and ability for fulfillment. One's attitude towards it depends on what he accepts as cause or source, the limited and confined or the limitless and ever-unfolding.

The Bible contains two accounts of creation. In the first, as given in the first chapter of Genesis, the limitless and ever-unfolding source or cause is presented. Here God, Mind, is the creator, bringing forth His own creation, with man appearing as the full and perfect likeness of creative Mind. God, having all dominion, declares of His likeness, man, "Let them have dominion."

Responsibility is that which is implied in the climax of creation (Gen. 1:31), "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Entire responsibility for the universe forever remains in God. Man is reflection, for whom the origin, God, is wholly, eternally responsible. Herein is man's wholeness. Herein is his complete ability for fulfillment.

In Christian Science this man for whom God only is responsible is described by Mary Baker Eddy as follows in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 475): "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker."

In the second record of creation, as given in the second chapter of Genesis, there is little responsibility of the material creator for its creation. This dream creator, mortal mind, makes man of matter, puts him into a limited matter form, and surrounds him with restrictions. Soon we find this dream man in the Biblical account busily helping his "Lord God" with creation. Is it surprising that he soon finds himself weighed down with too much to do and too little to do it with? Mrs. Eddy describes this concept of man in vivid terms. She says (ibid., p. 263): "Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators of something which Deity would not or could not create."

How, then, is one to free himself from the weight of false responsibility? By establishing and maintaining his conscious unity with God, his unlimited, ever-available source, and turning resolutely away from and rejecting the false and limited source. Just as there is no monetary value behind a counterfeit bill, so there is no substance or reality to this false record of a material creator and his erring, limited, egotistic man.

Jesus is our example. Surely no man ever assumed greater responsibility or fulfilled them with more joy and less burden than did the Master. His compassionate encouragement to his brother man (Matt. 11:28), "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," was the outcome of his steadfast recognition of God as Father, creator, and of man as the son, or reflection.

Ever responsive to the Father, Jesus constantly turned to his divine source for his ability to fulfill his responsibilities. His words (John 5:19), "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise," still stand as the model for unlabored, efficient human action and accomplishment. This selfless and intelligent abiding in divine Mind was the secret of his unparalleled ability, ease of performance, and freedom from false responsibility. He held no materially personal, confined sense of man, either of himself or of others. He knew that it is when one dishonors God by claiming "my" work, "my" child, "my" life separate from the one divine, illimitable source, that he runs into the complexities and constrictions of false responsibility.

At the close of her exegesis on the true, spiritual record of creation in Science and Health, the author gives a clear-cut recipe for the banishment of worry and fear due to a false sense of responsibility. She says (ibid., p. 521): "All that is made is the work of God, and all is good. We leave this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation (as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter,—joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy, omnipotence, and omnipresence."

Let him who is afraid to accept responsibility, or him who is burdened by it, follow this plan. Let him humbly recognize divine Mind as the inexhaustible source of all intelligence, wisdom, and action, and accept the fact that "all that is made is the work of God, and all is good." Then he is ready to take the next step and leave it "in the hands of God, not of man." Leave it there! When he finds his source of ability and action in God, and leaves it there, he will find himself where he really has always been, in God. This right placement of responsibility will then enable him to take the third step, the step of demonstration, for he can then go forward "joyfully acknowledging ... God's supremacy, omnipotence, and omnipresence."

The recent book, "Mary Baker Eddy: Her Mission and Triumph" by Julia Michael Johnston, brings home to the student of Christian Science with renewed force the tireless, selfless labors of the Leader of the Christian Science movement. Mrs. Eddy unhesitatingly accepted the responsibilities which her mission demanded, accomplished the specific work at hand, left it "in the hands of God, not of man," and pushed on to new responsibilities. Her work and her victories were always safe, because she echoed in her own life the words of the master Metaphysician (John 5:17), "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

It is a glorious thing to be busy with tasks which serve our brother man, and we need have no fear that we shall be left unsupported. God upholds and carries him who trustingly accepts responsibility and walks with his hand in God's. The source of fulfillment is at hand. It is inexhaustible. It is ours by reflection.

So let us greet each day's duties and obligations with the light-heartedness of true responsibility, singing confidently (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 354):