Claiming True Rest

HEDWIG RAVENÉ

"Spirituality is the guiding light to the highest rest"

And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness,—
Round our restlessness, His rest.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poet, glimpsed faintly a great truth when she wrote these lines.

Spirituality is the guiding light to the highest rest. In reality we are now and forever resting in God's fullness. But to be made practical this truth must be understood. Christian Science gives the understanding of God and of man that makes it possible to overcome the obsession of restlessness. This Science shows that restlessness stems from a belief of living in a material world and being dependent for our happiness on a person, place, or thing.

To know oneself as in reality God's perfect spiritual idea, reflecting all right ideas, unfettered by mortal beliefs, brings joyful freedom. To the degree that our thinking rests on the truth of being that every spiritual idea is indispensable to the full expression of God, we feel and reflect "His rest."

Only as we awaken from the mortal dream of existence and recognize its unreality can we accept Christ Jesus' invitation (Matt. 11:28), "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." A deep desire to express our true being in all the minutiae of daily living, together with an understanding of divine Love's presence and guidance, lightens the world's burden of unrest. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 254), "Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much."

At one time in her experience the writer temporarily lost sight of her spiritual perspective and as a result grew restless. Earnestly she prayed to be lifted out of her restlessness, but progress was slow. Believing herself to be lagging behind others, who from her then beclouded viewpoint of life appeared successful and affluent, she struggled on joylessly.

In her extremity she wrote to a trusted friend, a consecrated Christian Scientist. In reply the friend advised her not to let herself fall into the trap of human comparisons. It was pointed out to her that one cannot know how much or how little others are going forward and that human position or apparent well-being is no proof of true progress. The erroneous sense of not going forward, she was told, is a false presentment of mortal mind, an aggressive mental suggestion.

Encouraged, the writer was roused from a mesmeric state, determined to rely for her redemption on the Bible and on Mrs. Eddy's directions. Healing naturally followed. Brighter views presented themselves. Personal comparisons vanished. Gratefully she sought and found her spiritual completeness in divine Love to a far greater extent than ever before. Spiritual activity thus replaced unrest.

We shall be helped to secure a higher and more lasting sense of rest if we attend both the Sunday services and the Wednesday testimony meetings of a Church of Christ, Scientist. When the task of leading the Israelites out of the wilderness into the Promised Land proved arduous, Moses was comforted and spurred on by God's message (Ex. 33:14), "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Likewise, the presence of the Christ, Truth, in the consciousness of each one of us will be vitalized by the church service and will give us renewed peace and rest.

The Apostle Paul offered this unfailing solution for the overcoming of restlessness (Rom. 12: 2): "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Striving to honor the will of God, we spiritualize our thinking and are ushered into "His rest."

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