One of the vexing and persistent problems of human experience is pithily stated as "a square peg in a round hole." Those who have had experience with questions of personnel in industry, schools, or social work, or questions of family relationships, are quite aware of the irritations, and worse, which seem to arise when one does not have a right sense of employment.

We understand in Christian Science that God's work is the creative activity of Mind expressed in divine ideas. Scientifically interpreted, the first chapter of Genesis reveals a creation of divine ideas, with man as God's image and likeness. "Man is the expression of God's being," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 470 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

God reveals Himself through the ceaseless flow of right ideas from divine consciousness. Man's business, then, his only employment in Science, is to reflect divine Mind. To gain the scientific concept of right employment, one must first learn that his real identity in Science as the image of infinite Mind is in perfect relationship with every right idea. One must learn also that in the infinite perfection of Mind and Mind's creation there is not now, nor could there ever have been, any wandering or aimless idea. Nor can there be an idea apart from or beyond the infinity of Mind.

Real identity consists only of right ideas in perfect relationships, and there can never be "a square peg in a round hole" because such an anomaly cannot exist in Mind. Scientifically understood, the "square peg in a round hole" is only a belief or suggestion of disorder, masquerading as a man who is not in his right place.

Let us affirm steadfastly the presence here and now of God and man as perfect Principle and harmonious idea. Let us deny and reject the false concept of man as material, because it is spurious and never real. As Mrs. Eddy tells us (ibid., p. 487), "The believer and belief are one and are mortal." Neither one has presence or reality; both are false.

In Science there is but one infinite creator, and man is His image, as the Bible definitely states. As this fact unfolds in one's consciousness, he perceives that man works only as God directs. Jesus taught (John 5:19): "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise," and (John 9:4), "I must work the works of him that sent me."

He who is seeking right employment must identify himself with God as His idea and yield material beliefs to spiritual concepts. In Science one does not tell God what to do: one listens for and heeds His guidance. The Christian Scientist is satisfied with the daily unfoldment of God's purpose. He does not outline. He knows that his needs will be met as they arise. Moses did not send an experimental group ahead to test God's resources in the desert. He did his daily task as God directed, and safety, food, and drink were available as needed.

Age is not a factor in real employment, for God is ageless and man, His idea, knows no limitations of time. Neither race nor creed is an element of real employment, for neither one of these exists in the divine Mind. God's man is unrestricted and unexcluded from the infinite allness of God. As the boundlessness of God and man, as Principle and idea, becomes apparent in individual consciousness, the fears and beliefs of limitation progressively cease to have power or influence, and they finally disappear completely.

Growth in the understanding of Science brings a deepening conviction of the entirety of Mind and of Love's provision for man. This certitude found visible proof some years ago in the experience of the writer and his family. They confidently took the step of going to a distant city, where living quarters were believed unobtainable. They held in thought the idea of the completeness and ever-presence of God and His manifestation. A comfortable home was found, and it served them well.

If one is working primarily to attain the material accompaniments of labor rather than to gain a more responsive awareness of man's true employment, he is not in the best sense rightly employed. Satisfaction in merely material conditions is a crafty sort of mesmerism, which beguiles human thought with misty persuasions of security. The visible circumstances of employment are good only when they symbolize the beauty and harmony of devoted and active scientific thought.

Can each one of us be rightly employed now? Indeed we can. We are now, in truth, the children of God. We possess, by reflection, here and now every right idea of God. These ideas are ours to use, confidently and correctly. There is great encouragement and comfort in Mrs. Eddy's words in "Pulpit and Press" (p. 3), "Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love."

Man is governed by God and maintained in perpetual harmony. No person or error can divide or keep man from God or from his rightful and proper activity in God's perfect and orderly universe. Man continues serene and undisturbed, joyously working in God's infinite economy.

As the grateful Christian Scientist holds these truths firmly in consciousness, he finds that his highest endeavors are truly the result of his use of the ideas which Mind constantly provides. He works best in the knowledge that he is advancing the Cause of Christian Science and demonstrating the ever-presence of the kingdom of God, whatever his specific field of work may be. Reflecting the ideas of Mind in loving obedience to the gentle demands of God, he is rightly employed.