Article March 7, 1970 Issue

Johnny-come-lately?

BARBARA KINSLEY KOEHLER

Have you ever heard someone refer to himself as a Johnny-come-lately to Christian Science? Perhaps he has never understood that he was created perfect and spiritual in the image of God, and consequently he feels deplorably far from being able to prove the presence and power of God.

Can God, impartial Love, infinite Mind, create less than complete, mature, perfect ideas? Was there ever an instant when God's beloved, spiritual child was doomed to express less, be less than God made him? Does God love and favor any of His ideas more than others? Emphatically No! And demonstrating these truths is not a question of background or of time but of receptivity. How dedicated are we? How persistent? How inspired?

In Chapter 20 of Matthew we read a parable told by Christ Jesus about a householder who went out early in the morning and hired laborers for his vineyard to work for a penny a day. At intervals throughout the day he went back to the marketplace and hired others. When the day was over, each one received a penny for his pay. Those who had worked since early in the morning murmured about not receiving more than those who had started later. But the employer pointed out that he had paid them the penny he had promised and that he desired to pay each worker the same.

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