Article January 3, 1948 Issue

THE PRACTITIONER'S JOYOUS PRIVILEGE

MIRIAM D. NEWCOMB

What a joyous privilege was Jacob's! "The angels of God met him" as he journeyed in obedience to the command (Gen. 31:13), "Arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred." Jacob's love for and obedience to God enabled him to hear the angels. But as he journeyed, his spiritual sense became clouded by the fear of his brother Esau. We too may meet "the angels of God," but until we accept the spiritual fact which they reveal, that man and the universe are Love's reflection, we cannot know the ever-presence of Love.

Because Jacob did not clearly understand God to be infinite Love, he could not see either himself or his brother Esau as the man of God's creating. So he struggled with the mistaken belief of life, truth, and selfhood in matter until he gained a more spiritual sense of being. When Jacob saw "God face to face" (Gen. 32:30), he became more aware of the infinitude of Love, and his nature was changed. No longer was he called Jacob, but Israel. He was too wise to let go of this spiritual sense of being, for with it he had "power with God and with men" (Gen. 32:28). His ability to listen for, to hear, and to accept "the angels of God"—spiritual thoughts—made him his own practitioner.

To a degree every demonstrating student of Christian Science becomes his own practitioner, whether or not he is publicly registered. He is taught by Mary Baker Eddy that "to live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160). Therefore, the Christian Science practitioner's joyous privilege is to listen for, hear, and accept "the angels of God"—spiritual thoughts.

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