Editorial January 23, 1965 Issue

Temperate Action

Helen Wood Bauman

Christ Jesus knew well the ultimate of being, for his first announcement when he entered on his ministry as Saviour was (Matt. 4:17), "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."' This was a radical message, for heaven, divine harmony, is the absolute truth of being—beyond matter and error. But Jesus tempered this radical message by preceding it with this admonition for right action: "Repent." He said, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

The Master's whole method of teaching and preaching followed the line of temperate action. While he revealed an absolute heaven and its glories and worked out his full salvation from mortality, his parables and precepts always emphasized the human footsteps of diligence, persistence, and regeneration as essential to the attainment of the kingdom of heaven within man.

Christian Science follows the way of the Master; and in practicing it, one finds that he cannot leap instantly from mortality to immortality. However, the effect of one's realization of the absolute truth is to bring one's human self and one's immediate affairs under the control of divine law. One may become suddenly healthy after sickness, but he does not suddenly leave earth for heaven. One expects the absolute truth he affirms to have a definite effect upon his character and his present sense of life, and he works to yield to the power that transforms.

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