Editorial January 5, 1952 Issue

LISTENING

Richard J. Davis

Listening is mental attentiveness. Listening therefore is a state of mental receptivity characterizing every seeker for the things of Spirit, God. Listening is an evidence of spiritual responsiveness to divine inspiration, and in Christian Science it provides a way whereby the oneness, or unity, of God and man, of Mind and its idea, may he demonstrated.

Listening is an ability that every student of Christian Science should seek to cultivate, for unless one understands its meaning, how can he be sure of receiving and utilizing the spiritual ideas whose Christly mission is fulfilled in healing and redemption? The establishment of quiet at-one-ment with divine Mind always prepares the way for such unfoldment.

Spiritual alertness, attention, and calmness are characteristic of the true listener, and these qualities are more properly in evidence than the impulse to talk. This perhaps may be why Mary Baker Eddy says in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 339), "If people would confine their talk to subjects that are profitable, that which St. John informs us took place once in heaven, would happen very frequently on earth,— silence for the space of half an hour."

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