Article July 24, 1954 Issue

THE DIVINE STIMULUS OF SPIRIT

VERNON H. BLAIR

Many admonitions found in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy urge the rousing of the human mind from its self-imposed lethargy so that spiritual progress and healing may result. On pages 127 and 128 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy speaks thus of the need for constant mental activation: "The human heart, like a feather bed, needs often to be stirred, sometimes roughly, and given a variety of turns, else it grows hard and uncomfortable whereon to repose."

This animating statement was seriously pondered by one young man whose introduction to Christian Science had been attended by impressive healings and a marked spiritual quickening, but who later seemed to experience a depressing period of mental stagnation. Feeling keenly the loss of his initial enthusiasm and greatly desiring a renewed sense of spontaneity and inspiration, he earnestly turned to his heavenly Father-Mother God for guidance. In humility he prayed for the restoration of that spiritual stimulus which had so enriched his earlier experience.

The spiritual unfoldment which followed this petition revealed the reason for the mental slump. A gradual relaxing of the student's daily vigil had eventually resulted in careless and indifferent thinking. He had been lulled into a passive frame of mind—an unreceptive mental state wherein the fresh, invigorating qualities of divine Spirit were given little opportunity for expression—and his former zeal and inspiration had given way to apathy and mental laziness. Small wonder that his demonstration of Christian Science had become difficult and protracted! Since he was separated in belief from the motivating influence of infinite, omniactive Love, what power remained to supply the wisdom and incentive so vital to spiritual healing? The student saw that his immediate need was to rout the sleep-producing foes of scientific demonstration with an awakened understanding of Spirit, God, as the source of all true action and volition and of man as the blest expression of Spirit's eternal unfolding.

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