Article December 31, 1955 Issue

THE UPWARD WAY

RUTH WESLER GOODWIN

Isaiah pictures what may be called in Christian Science a transformation from the desolation and dangers of mortal thinking to the joy and security to be found in the understanding that life is spiritual, not material. We read (35:1–8): "The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.... The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness."

Every earnest student of Christian Science wishes to travel this highway which leads upward and away from materiality. Let us consider some of the requirements necessary for attainment of this goal, the understanding of man's true being in its perfection as the image of God. We need not think of ourselves as weary plodders. It is only in human experience that one needs to go through the process of climbing to spiritual heights, since the real man, the true selfhood of everyone, is and forever has been at the point of spiritual perfection, at one with God. The need is to cease believing otherwise. We must rise above this false belief in a mind separate from God. Let nothing divert us from this high purpose.

One of the first steps is to examine one's own consciousness. There may be wrestlings with pride and self-justification before one is ready to acknowledge his faults and failings, which hinder a start on the upward way. Even if some error which concerns us should seem to originate from the false thinking of others, only our own thought can give this error any semblance of power to hurt us or to deter us from going higher. Neither disappointment in others nor condemnation of self can change the eternal fact that God, good, is the only power.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

INSPIRATION IN CHURCH BUILDING