"What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds." Mary Baker Eddy gives us these words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 4). How many of us honestly and wholeheartedly agree with that striking admonition? Do we not often believe that what we most need is worldly goods, a successful career, the love of some particular person, or perhaps good health? Even if we do agree with this statement, how many of us can say that our lives show forth a constant and fervent desire for these virtues?

If we are prone to ask ourselves on the least provocation, "Why did this happen to me? What am I going to do now?" or, "Why haven't I been healed yet?" we must remember that what we most need is "patience, meekness, love, and good deeds." Jesus said (Matt. 6:53), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Christian Science is above all a practical religion. What Mrs. Eddy preached she practiced and demonstrated with "signs following"—with many wonderful healings. We should ask ourselves, then, what the practice of patience, meekness, and love entails.

What about patience? Are we, for example, provoked to anger by officious individuals? Or by an overbearing colleague? Or by the slowness of people less quick-witted than we are? Or by some inanimate object, such as the telephone? If so, we are lacking in patience.

Do we too easily give up an undertaking if it is not immediately successful? Or cut short others when they are speaking in order to voice our own opinions? Or thrust our way past others when driving on the highway or using public transport? If we do, we are lacking in patience.

How then shall we describe patience? Surely it is, above all, the quality of joyous expectancy, born of the true sense of God's omnipotence and omnipresence and of man as the spiritual idea of God. As we truly seek God, we can confidently wait upon Him to unfold the harmonious sense of being to our consciousness. Patience is in no way a negative and apathetic quality. It requires the exercise of compassion and self-discipline, as well as joyousness and faithful reliance on God.

What about meekness? Christ Jesus had some very strong comments to make on this quality. Can we honestly say that we do not ever condemn or at least pass judgment on some friend, acquaintance, or stranger? Do we not, like the Pharisee, sometimes thank God that we are not as other men—"extortioners, unjust, adulterers"—content that we go to church twice a week and give tithes of all we possess?

Meekness is not a false humility. It is in no way connected with constantly dwelling on our own sinfulness and unworthiness; for the key to the realization of a true sense of meekness is precisely the elimination of this wrong sense of self. Every day when we say the Lord's Prayer we pray, "Thy will be done." We pray to become more and more faithful servants of God, expressing our true individuality in the fulfillment of His purpose. Thus we rid ourselves of that willful egotism which quickly becomes hurt or angry when it cannot have its own way. In proportion as we learn to say honestly (Luke 22: 42), "Not my will, but thine, be done," we eliminate all personal sense until there is nothing in us that wants to be proud or overbearing or resentful. There is only the desire to solve each fresh problem as it appears, that God may be truly glorified. When a discordant situation arises, the humble individual will search his own thoughts and consider his own actions to see if in any respect he himself is at fault, whether in some way he has failed to be wholly loving.

Thus we come to the third quality of Mind referred to by our Leader in the passage quoted earlier—love, a quality most directly expressed in good deeds. When a friend or an acquaintance comes to us with a difficulty and asks for help, do we sometimes answer, "No, it's no trouble at all," while thinking, "Really, this is most inconvenient," or, "Surely he could have asked someone else."

If the need is a genuine one, we must reject that fretful hidden reaction as the voice of a liar, a voice not belonging to our true selfhood. For help grudgingly given is but half given at best. I remember having read a beautiful story of a lady who saw a boy carrying another along on his back. She remarked that he had a heavy burden. "He's not a burden," answered the boy; "he's my brother."

Appeals for help may be a challenge—a steppingstone to increased spiritual awareness and comprehension—but they need not be a burden. One's brother should never be a burden. So if the need is apparent and that false inner voice mutters of fear or weariness or lack of time, we must turn away from it and remember our Leader's words (Science and Health, p. 454), "Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action." We can then answer without reservation, "No, it's no trouble at all."

One of the most common reasons why right motives do not achieve the full spiritual results expected of them is the mortal mind tendency to harbor along with them, in effect, a whole colony of other motives. We select the most creditable one for exhibition to the outside world. For instance, if anyone knocks at the door asking for help, Christian charity comes forth and proclaims itself in loud tones as the sole occupant of thought. But all the time such motives as the hope of pecuniary gain and self-glorification may be hidden in consciousness. These are the "little foxes" that so often invade the domain of mind and rob us of our rightful harvest. They leave us in puzzled bewilderment, wondering, perhaps, why our kindly actions have been so scantily appreciated or so unfruitful. The mere fact that we crave human appreciation is an indication that we should examine our intents and purposes more closely, and remember that it is our Father in heaven whom we seek to honor and glorify, not ourselves. Yet once we have searched the heart and rejected any impurities, assuredly nothing will prove impossible to us. The achievement of a good work depends upon the rightness of our aims and the purity of our motives and on our understanding of the fact that all things are possible with God.