Article November 1, 2013

Instant obedience

Originally published in the May 6, 1921 issue of The Christian Science Monitor

Perhaps no ordinary achievement seems so difficult to the human sense of things as the ability to be prompt and unhurried in meeting all the appointments common to the adjustment of one’s daily affairs. Of “the little foxes, that spoil the vines,” spoken of in the Old Testament, one of the most annoying is the fault of being late in keeping engagements and thus making others late also. On the other hand, there is a condition of thought which is equally erroneous, although not so easily seen for what it is, the overanxious thought of the individual who rushes along to keep an appointment regardless of the inconvenience he may cause those about him, and, arriving at his destination, waits with an air of impatience for those who may seem dilatory but have really been detained for good reasons.

These obvious shortcomings are easier to correct, however, than are the more subtle errors culminating in the failure of the individual to be prompt in heeding the demands of Principle and so seeming to lose opportunities essential to his success. Business men are sometimes heard to say that neglect to seize an opportunity has resulted in the disintegration of their financial interests to the point of failure. The stoic, meeting with such an experience, endeavors to console himself with a man-made philosophy of some sort, which cannot bring him real consolation, for all sophistry, however pleasant, is but the language of the evil one or the one evil, a belief in a power apart from Deity. Indulgence in the belief that evil exists would subvert the whole purpose for which man is created, namely, to glorify God.

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