In seeking a clearer understanding of true employment, one student of Christian Science has found it helpful to consider the verse from the Bible which reads (Isa. 49:4), "Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God."

While the first part of this quotation indicates discouragement, the second part emphasizes the truth that one can trust God's justice and sure reward if one is acknowledging his true employment to be the expression of God.

A study of the words "expression" and "reflection,"' as used by Mary Baker Eddy, is helpful to one seeking a clearer understanding of true employment. For example, on page 470 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she says, "Man is the expression of God's being." This might be considered as a correlative to Jesus' words (John 14:10), "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

It is apparent that one learns his true abilities and possibilities only by learning more of God. Studying to this end, with the aid of the Concordances to Mrs. Eddy's writings, one begins to see that the only true success is found in the expression of God's qualities, and the only true ability is found in the reflection of divine Mind. Such expression and reflection do not lead to success; they are success.

Patience and persistence may be needed in human experience, but error cannot stand against the power of God, divine Mind, consistently expressed. The human mind attributes failure to many supposed causes. It may classify one person as reliable but slow and another as capable but hasty and un-co-operative. Regardless of such classifications, consistent effort to express God's qualities will solve the problem of wrong employment or lack of employment.

One struggling with such a problem will find help in Mrs. Eddy's words in Science and Health, where she says (p. 327), "Reason is the most active human faculty." If the problem seems to be one of incompetence, inability to do one's work properly, he may reason that man, as the expression of Mind's being, reflects intelligence and ability.

Such reasoning, varied to meet the individual need and consistently applied, permeates consciousness with the truth of being, leaving no room for the false and limiting beliefs which seem to cause inharmony.

In dealing with conditions which apparently cause unemployment or unsatisfactory employment, we should not accept such conditions as real. Christian Science overcomes evil by showing us that it is unreal and that good alone is real.

A change in management in a firm where a Christian Scientist was employed brought persons into authority who seemed to manifest untruthfulness and rudeness. One day as the Scientist worked at his desk, vulgar and abusive language was being used toward an employee, and the individual under attack was manifesting fear and confusion.

The Scientist found himself thinking that Christian Science would protect him from such unpleasantness. Suddenly, as if a voice had spoken to him, the thought came: This Science protects me from evil by showing me that in God's kingdom there is no evil. God, good, is the only cause; therefore none of this is happening in the truth of being.

Several months elapsed before the problem was solved; but the student, although he himself was subjected to an attack by this same superior, did not feel a sense of fear or resentment. In spite of the argument that he was too old and in spite of efforts on the part of his supervisor to malign his character when he applied for work elsewhere, the student found suitable employment with a more humane management. In addition, he received a higher salary and a more liberal expense account.

The Scientist learned from this experience how unwise it is to discuss error, because repetition tends to magnify it and make it seem real. He also learned that earnest prayer, which affirms the truth and denies the seeming error, was effective where human efforts seemed only to increase the discord.

During this time the student daily pondered the words of Solomon as recorded in I Kings (5:4), "The Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent." He found this to be an inspiring statement of man's real environment and condition and a firm basis for demonstration in Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy gives us this instruction in "No and Yes." She says (pp. 24, 25): "There was never a moment in which evil was real. This great fact concerning all error brings with it another and more glorious truth, that good is supreme. As there is none beside Him, and He is all good, there can be no evil. Simply uttering this great thought is not enough! We must live it, until God becomes the All and Only of our being."

As we apply these statements of truth to our demonstration of true employment, we see the necessity of expressing in daily life the facts of real activity until they alone are real to us. Moment by moment we must be about our Father's business by expressing only true qualities, such as intelligence, integrity, and love, and rejecting as unreal every suggestion of incompetence, dishonesty, laziness, irritation, and the like. Living and working thus will transform our employment, for activity divinely directed and empowered brings success.