The human mind has a way of scattering itself in many directions. It pays attention to the things most interesting for the moment or for the hour. God demands, however, that the desire for righteousness and the search for understanding be instant and constant. Here there can be no wandering. Eager and importunate is he who is consecrated; devoted and single of purpose if he would attain. God comes first in the affections of him who is truly a Christian, and no appeal of the world can dissuade or delay him whose intent is fixed on spiritual growth. The thing the Christian loves most keeps most in his thoughts, and gladly and thoroughly he serves it.

As students of Christian Science we are individually in varying stages of consecration. To a greater or less extent we are still serving the world, still in bondage to its time-consuming demands. Honest analysis brings us to admit, then, that we are yet somewhat given to worldly doings, even with our present measure of consecration to God. We all speak of "social dissipation," for instance, admitting by the term the nature of much that takes our time. Human affairs go on largely without the remembrance of God, yet as God is better understood His presence will come into our affairs; our ways will change and the manner in which we spend our time will change. Many of us lament that we find so little time to ponder the ways of God, yet at the moment we may be engrossed in something which a little more courage and purity of purpose would eliminate. When worldly distraction asks for valuable hours out of a precious day, we can always test the worth of it by deciding whether it will contribute to the spirituality of ourselves or of any one else. If it does, God speed it! But if it does not, we shall by renouncing it surely gain greater hold upon the things to which we are truly consecrated.

The least wise of us will admit that an hour spent with one of the old prophets, with Matthew or Luke or John, with the preaching of Paul, or with the words and works of the master Christian himself, in the light which Christian Science sheds upon it all, is of hundredfold more value than anything the human mind can devise through which to entertain itself. The honest labor necessary for many of us, in our homes or out of them, limits greatly the time we can spend as we choose; and the decision concerning the holiday hour—whether it shall contribute to our spiritual growth or to our personal pleasure—determines in great measure our progress heavenward. Christian Science is not here to keep us in good trim for material enjoyments or for intellectual excesses. It comes to spiritualize our thinking; and spirituality should cost us something. Spiritual knowing is not ours by accident or by good fortune. It never "happens." It comes through the thorough systematic work involved in cherishing Godlike thoughts and in casting out material thoughts; it appears only as self-seeking, with all it includes, disappears. And when we really desire spirituality above all else, we shall cease to pamper the intellect and the appetites, as fast as we discover the nature of these things in ourselves and set earnestly about seeking first the knowledge of God.

Worldliness, however, assumes so many forms and the situation of all mortals is so complex, upon the human side, that no individual can be a law to another in these matters, nor can one judge the mental state of another. Frivolity is by no means confined to any special group of people. Persons called society folk may be far less worldly at heart than onlookers who lack the same opportunities; those of us whose circumstances deny us power and position might not be beyond misusing or overvaluing position if we had it. Duties of station and relationships and consideration for the rights of others may make the same action unselfish for one that is wholly a matter of self-seeking in another. The worldling is he who loves the world, not necessarily he who has position in it; he who craves worldly favors, not just he who has them. So it is a question always of the intent of the heart rather than a matter of what the world may call a high or low station; from every point of view it is a thing which cannot be safely judged by appearances.

This remains, however, that the student and exponent of the law of God must know where he himself stands in this matter of consecration to God's world. The question resolves itself, perhaps, into this: whether we are still indulging an undestroyed appetite for what is called social and intellectual dissipation, or whether we are unselfishly conceding to situations not at once in our power to abandon. If the former, our thoughts need honest diagnosing to reveal which master we are serving. If the latter, we are in the way of progress and the outward worldliness will fall away as the pure purpose comes to possess the field. On page 138 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says: "The detail of conforming to society, in any way, costs you what it would to give time and attention to hygiene in your ministry and healing." Let any of us contemplate our possible mental condition if in our ministry we should give time and attention to hygiene, and we may easily detect the divided state of thought from which our Leader calls us, in the social life as in all matters.

It is not to be supposed, of course, that happy associations are to be given up as our thought of social life is purified. The dictionaries define society as "fellowship, companionship;" "any body of persons connected by acquaintance, friendship, or neighborhood, or associated for a common object." So good will in common interests will very likely always draw us together and our fellowship will happily continue, but the character and quality of our association will change as God enters. Just as children grow so interested in other things that the dolls and marbles once so absorbing no longer attract them, so he who is growing spiritually loses his appetite for selfish or frivolous pleasures. The understanding of Truth soon makes one so clean at heart that in social relations he is free from every disposition to speak or to do evil; so high-minded that gossip and criticism and petty feeling no longer seem "good form."

This education will continue, and as God-governed thinking displaces material desires and aims, many unworthy things which now attract us will fall away and our activities will bring us together for one purpose, namely, to establish "the beauty of holiness" in all our ways. Already the students of Christian Science as they assemble in their church services are proving that they can meet together in the right thinking which brings them in its measure into the presence of God. And when all our society, all our fellowship, shall be with this motive and of this character, when we come together because the law of God draws us one to another to glorify and exalt Him in human affairs, then frivolity and selfishness can no longer claim our time or mark our activities with waste and wickedness.

Surely this is the ideal for all Christians; and each must take his steps toward the ideal uncriticized and unmolested by his neighbor. All who desire peace must some time turn from every phase of material indulgence to a single and sincere search for the things of God. And as fast as the ideal is worked out, Christian healing for all our sins and follies will be found multiplying to us peace and health. This change of thought and attitude cannot make a hermit or a recluse of the Christian; he grows, in fact, more closely related to the affairs of men because he can help bring to human activities a right remedy for the folly and the pain. The world cannot be accepted as it now appears, neither can it be abandoned; it must be transformed, and great responsibilities rest upon him who already sees the coming of "a new heaven and a new earth."

On page 177 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says: "Never was there a more solemn and imperious call than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent devotion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and holiest of all causes. The hour is come. ... Will you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science which are necessary to the salvation of the world from error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practically, and answer aright!"