Editorial May 2, 1953 Issue

SPIRITUAL SERVICE

Richard J. Davis

Perhaps no word more fully convoys the animus of the Christ in its practical application and living than "service." Defined, it is expressed as labor for others, as that which promotes interest and happiness, as unselfish devotion, and, especially in the light of Christian Science, as spiritual obedience and love. Fulfilling his mission as the divine Way-shower, as Love's highest representative in human experience, Christ Jesus presented the supreme example of spiritual obedience or service.

Speaking to his disciples at a moment when there was contention among them as to who should be greatest, the Master reminded them (Luke 22:27), "I am among you as he that serveth." He demonstrated that obedience to the divine will is the essence of man as the manifestation of God because, as Christian Science teaches, the true function of man as Mind's idea is to serve, to show forth, and to fulfill Mind's purpose. Spiritual service is the actual exemplification and manifestation of our true selfhood as the sons or ideas of God.

Mind's infinite revelation and expression is evidenced in immeasurable spiritual ideas, each one obediently serving the creative cause in which it has its being. In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy in poetic prose indicates how God's ideas, evidenced even in human experience, reveal their divine, origin and joyously serve Love's purpose. On page 516 she writes: "God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our foot silently exclaims, 'The meek shall inherit the earth.' The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the churchdome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth."

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