Two friends were walking across the fields one sunny summer afternoon. They had spent the morning on a wooded promontory looking through pine trees over the yorkshire moors, sweeping away, fold beyond fold, "unto their utmost purple rim." As they returned through fields of "bearded barley" and soft gray-green oats, they spoke of Jesus and of his walking through the cornfields with his disciples.

How different from the rush and noise of modern cities seemed the Master's life! Yet he had to deal with the same so-called mortal mind as they. Human nature has not changed, and to-day men have to contend with the same human difficulties; and similar lessons of overcoming may be learned from the simple life of the country.

Passing through those fields in the morning, the friends had watched a farmer destroying an attractive looking plant. To him it was merely a tare which hindered the growth of the oats; and so it was mown down and carted away. Are there not many things in our lives which seem pleasant and attractive, and with which we are loath to part? But if they are of no real value, and if they hinder our growth and progress, is it not better to cast them away? Though it may seem difficult to uproot them, they will only add to our difficulties if we continue to cherish them, and our way will be easier without them.

How often we watch our fellow workers from a distance and wonder why they do this or that, and think we could find a much better and quicker method! We cannot see the difficulties with which they may have to contend, the obstacles they may have to surmount. "The best thing to do isn't always the hardest," declares a modern writer. The best thing to do may at first seem the hardest, because it involves effort, possibly sacrifice; but not to do it might lead to still more difficulty and suffering. On the other hand, the best thing to do may be the most simple and natural at the moment. There may be a false martyr-like tendency that causes an individual to persecute himself unnecessarily. He chooses to do the more difficult thing, the thing he does not want to do, thinking it must be right simply because it involves greater labor. Thereby he often stifles his true, spiritual self, which would desire and take pleasure in the right alone.

If it seems difficult to analyze our desires, we must remember that it is not sufficient just to consider them, either selfishly or unselfishly, whether to yield to them or to deny them: the better test is to ask what effect our choice may have on the lives and happiness of ourselves and others. That which brings the greatest good to the greatest number is the best thing to do, whether it is contrary to our desires or in accord with them. As we progress spiritually, we should expect to desire the right, to shrink from taking the wrong path, and quickly to detect the difficulties and hardships it would involve. There will then be no doubt in our thoughts that the right way is the easiest way.

Jesus warned his disciples of the persecutions they would encounter, telling them that they would need to deny self and take up the cross daily; but he also told them that those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake are blessed, and that "their's is the kingdom of heaven." Could greater joy be offered? No wonder he exhorted them to rejoice and be exceeding glad! And so, even with Gethsemane and Calvery before him, he prayed that his disciples might have his joy and peace, because he could look back on work well done and forward to the resurrection and the ascension. It may thus be seen that the way he took was truly the quickest way of overcoming the world, the flesh, and all evil.

In speaking of the way of holiness, Isaiah declared, "The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Jesus taught of this safe way, warning his disciples that it was straight and narrow; and in this age this way has been discovered and made plain to us by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. The work this involved was fraught with difficulties and hardships for her, but she never wavered. With the desire to spare us some of these difficulties, to make clear the best way to reach and help humanity, she organized the Christian Science church, founded the movement with all the various activities that are bringing this healing truth to seekers in all parts of the world.

Christian Science has stood the test of sixty-four years, and the organization has developed from a small band of humble workers in the little seaside town of Lynn, Massachusetts, to a great movement that reaches to every part of the world. The Master, who called himself "the way," who demanded practical proofs of healing from his followers, said, "By their frutits ye shall know them."

If there had been an easier way, surely our Leader would have shown it to us. She spent nearly all her life seeking for that way, and, having found it, she prayed for guidance to direct others to it and to protect them from wandering to other paths that might seem more attractive or more simple. Her one desire was to help humanity. She wrote her full revelation in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and anyone may take that book and study it. Those who have done so faithfully and without prejudice, endeavoring to practice its teachings and so proving their truth, have no wish for any other guide. It is a waste of time to seek for other ways, to follow other paths; we can but be grateful that the true one has been discovered and clearly pointed out to us. Therein lies our own healing, and our instructions as to how to heal others.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 200) our Leader writes, "It was the consummate naturalness of Truth in the mind of Jesus, that made his healing easy and instantaneous." His instructions to his disciples, his replies to the scribes and Pharisees, show that he was not only familiar with the Scriptures, but had perceived the deeper spiritual meaning in them hidden from the learned. His thoughts dwelt so continually on the truth about God and man, on the perfection and goodness of the whole creation of God, that this was to him more natural than the discords of human life which, according to material sense, seemed to surround him. It was the constant study and practice of righteousness that made him the great Master in the art of healing.

We well know that every artist, every worker, has achieved a mastery of his subject, an ease of execution, only by study and practice. Can we achieve instantaneous healing in any other way? The right way need not be long and difficult. We talk of being "in Science" for so many years; but how many moments of those years have we actually been "in Science," that is, dwelling in the scientific consciousness of the truth of God, and man, and the universe? In "No and Yes" (p. 9) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Divinely defined, Science is the atmosphere of God;" and on the next page she says that it "reveals and interprets God and man; it aggregates, amplifies, unfolds, and expresses the All-God." To be "in Science," then, is to be in the very presence of God, in the kingdom of heaven; and for the precious moments we have spent there we are grateful.

As these moments increase, our demonstrations of the truth will also increase, our problems will be solved more quickly and easily, and our lives will become filled with work that brings joy and strength and peace of mind. And we shall at last realize that we have found the only way that leads into the kingdom of heaven.