IN the twentieth chapter of Matthew it is recorded that when the mother of Zebedee's children asked Jesus, "Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom," the Master answered her in the following words: "To sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father."

There is no doubt that worldly ambition and selfishness had much to do with the unusual request of this mother. However, she must have glimpsed the heavenly glory that accompanies the presence of the Christ to have asked that these two exalted places be given to her children. But since man's place is spiritual and individual, inseparable from and dependent on God, we attain it as our thought is dedicated to the service of God. Our reward is in proportion to our honesty and our fidelity to Truth.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states in her book "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 70), "Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity." Then it is possible here and now for all of us to find our place in God's loving plan for His children. One may ask just how he is to improve his present consciousness of place and overcome the many obstructions and frustrations that seem to beset him at every turn. He must begin with the correct concept of God as the loving Father, who "knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him" (Matt. 6:8). As this fact is understood and accepted, fear, strife, competition, and limitation are destroyed and more harmonious surroundings are manifested.

A young student who was competing for a very desirable position expressed fear that he might lose to one of the other contestants. It was explained to him by a Christian Science practitioner that as God's idea he could occupy only the place prepared for him of the Father, and that there is no competition in the divine order. When this truth became apparent to the young student, he was able to see that place is governed by God and His laws, and that he did not want the position if it were not his, nor could he have it if it belonged to another. Fear was eliminated from his thinking and replaced with a higher sense of justice. When he was finally notified that he had been selected for the position, he was grateful that he had been willing to quit human planning and put his trust in God, infinite divine Love.

Since right place is vital to us all and the attainment of it dependent on spiritual understanding and growth, it is well to study what Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 115) calls the transitional qualities, namely, "humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance." Referring to the dictionary, we find the word transition to mean "passage from one place, state, stage of development, type, etc., to another." In our passage to a higher sense of place we make progress as we demonstrate these moral qualities through the understanding of the purity of man as God's likeness. In studying the earthly career of Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, we note that he constantly lived and taught them. Pure and uplifting thoughts of Spirit's allness and man's immortal perfection broaden our outlook, brighten our prospects, and bless all who feel their influence.

If the way seems difficult, let us realize that in the degree we purify consciousness and express greater love for God and man a clearer discernment of our true abiding place will be revealed to us. Under the marginal heading "Spiritual guidance," our beloved Leader says  (Science and Health, p. 566) :"As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides of human fear,—as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised joy,—so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for them who love God."

Here we see that love for God, good, is a condition that must be fulfilled in order to attain the place prepared of the Father. Paul also stresses the necessity of fulfilling this condition of love for God when he says in his first epistle to the Corinthians (2:9), "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."