Article May 22, 1954 Issue

RESISTING APATHY

[Of Special Interest to Young People]

PAMELA OLIVE MARSH

God is ever with us. He surrounds us, He protects us. As Christian Scientists we know that this is always true and that in reality nothing can ever separate us from Him. Nevertheless, there are moments when we feel that our present thinking is so far from Him that the mental chasm is too vast for us to span. At such times we are like one who sits in a darkened room contemplating the density of the blackness around, forgetting or lacking the energy to switch on the light. The switch is at hand, the electric current is there.

When we are tempted to loll in the darkness of apathy with folded hands, we must resist this temptation and arise at once. We must declare firmly that there is only one Mind, God, and that we do not possess a mortal mind of our own that can become unenlightened and uninspired, since man reflects the one Mind, God. Man can no more be separated from Mind than a ray of light can be cut off from the sun. We must know that in reality nothing can come between us and the vitality, inspiration, and fearlessness that God, Life, is constantly imparting to us as actually His children. Let us begin to make these declarations even if at first we feel that we are doing so with our lips alone. If we are persistent in seeking the truth, we shall soon find that we are praying understandingly.

One of our Leader's students writes of her in "We Knew Mary Baker Eddy," Second Series (p. 16): "I remember her statement, 'There are no short cuts in Christian Science,' and she said, as I recall, 'I have taken you up into the mount; I have showed you the promised land'—and then she added with finality, but also with infinite tenderness—'but you will have to walk every step of the way to get there.'" Sometimes we waste much time being appalled at the distance Godward we have to travel and often feel that it is useless even to begin. But Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 89), "We are all capable of more than we do." At first glance this may appear to be a command only, but as we reread it we find that it is also an encouraging promise that we can do more.

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