"The spiritual intent"

M. ELSIE ADAMSON

The study of Christian Science brings a continual unfoldment of good. Every student will recall many occasions when, while reading the Bible or our Leader's writings, a passage or verse has stood out with greater clarity than before, or with a meaning quite different from any he had previously attached to it. During the reading of the Lesson-Sermon one Sunday, the closing words of a paragraph on page 365 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, referring to the requisites for healing, "The result will correspond with the spiritual intent," struck home very forcibly to one of the listeners.

For two or three days this student had been struggling against the belief of a cold in her throat, and her efforts to get rid of it did not seem to be meeting with much success. As she heard the words quoted above, it flashed across her thought why little healing had resulted. Although she had tried to realize and declare the truth faithfully, there had been lack of the right "spiritual intent." She realized that her predominant thought had been to get rid of the claim before it manifested itself as a cold in her head; in other words, she was making use of Truth for her own comfort. This made her consider very carefully what should be the motive governing thought when dealing with error. Clearly, the "spiritual intent" should be the desire to show forth God's glory, to know and manifest more of Him, and not to accept error as any part of His creation.

On considering the matter further, the student realized that the "spiritual intent" should be the motive power of all undertakings, including all the details of everyday life. She saw the necessity of striving to remember to pause before doing even the smallest duties, in order to get thought in line with the true motive. Dealt with thus, these seemingly small, and often tiresome duties, take on quite a different significance.

It was also realized how important it is to question one's self as to the motives for efforts made on behalf of others. Perhaps one may be trying to help another to overcome some belief in sickness. Is his desire to help that one to realize and manifest more of God the basic motive? In the Gospels, and in our Leader's writings, we learn that true compassion is a necessary mental attitude for successful healing; but the paramount desire must be to help the patient to manifest more of God, and to be absolutely loyal to the truth, that is, to the truth about the perfection of God and His creation. Many a protracted healing of sickness, or of some other discordant condition, may be caused by lack of the "spiritual intent."

The Scriptures teach, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God;" and, when quoting this text on page 341 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy adds the word "Truth" after God. A Christian Science treatment consists in trying to understand and reflect more of God, thereby blotting out error. So it is obvious that to give an effective treatment the motives must be the very highest possible. We know that we would never allow any slur upon the name of anyone we love to remain uncontradicted for a moment. How much more should this be so in our work for God! The more we grow in our knowledge of God, the more will our love for Him increase; and the desire that His glory and perfection shall be manifested more and more will be easily and naturally the predominating motive. As our vision grows clearer, our sense of man will also become higher and purer, and we shall know that there is no sick, sinful, or sorrowful man to be helped, but, instead, only a false belief to be destroyed.

In our work for the church how careful we need to be that the "spiritual intent" shall be the only motive; that our work shall never become mechanical, or be done as a daily task, but as a privilege to be allowed to help carry on the activities which are surely and steadily working to show forth God's kingdom on earth! Also, when doing the necessary work before a church meeting, or when voting at the meeting, how very important it is to keep clearly before one the "spiritual intent" of being guided entirely by the one Mind in furthering the Cause of Christian Science, so that all thoughts of personal preference, or other undesirable motives, may be eliminated!

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