Awake and Listening

GERTRUDE S. DAURIAC

"The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance of a risen day." So writes Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (Pref., p. vii). The word "wakeful" means watchful, vigilant, alert. When one is spiritually awake and alertly listening, he is in that state of consciousness spoken of by Jesus when he said, "I must be about my Father's business." Being awake, one is not drawn into the tangled maze of mesmeric dreaming, but is quick to detect the web with which the carnal mind would seek to entangle the consciousness of the Christian Scientist.

God's thoughts are ever with us; they are our Life, our substance. Our true occupation consists in being awake and listening to the "still small voice," hastening to obey the leadings of Truth. Only in this way can we rise out of the dense darkness of material thinking into the clear, unsullied light of infinite Mind.

At one time the writer, to mortal sense, was going through a period of great unhappiness. The way seemed to stretch out before her very bleak and dark, and fear pressed heavily against her. Almost driven to do so, she turned to Christian Science, and sought the loving help of a practitioner. For a time things seemed very much the same until, suddenly, it seemed as if a voice spoke to her "as when a lion roareth." There were only two words, but to the writer's bewildered, storm-tossed thought, to obey would be the very worst thing she could do. It would mean giving up everything she loved, the only security she knew in a topsy-turvy world. It would mean going out to a distant, fear-shadowed place. She said to herself many times that it was impossible; that she could never do that. The words were repeated; and there is no mistaking God's voice when one is awake and listening. With fear and doubt knocking at the door of thought, she began making her preparations. She went out as she felt herself led to do.

And what happened? Did all the dreaded, feared things come to pass? Did she lose everything that was dear to her? From the moment she took her first step, from the moment she was obedient to God's leading, the heavy blanket of fear lifted, unhappiness was healed, and she was able to bless and help others. Nothing was lost. She had everything she had had before, and much, much more. How true it is that we can never lose anything that is really ours! It is only the old tatters of mortal mind's giving that fall away, and disclose the real garment of Truth and Love shining resplendent

To be listening is not to be dreaming. God's man, the real man, is always hearing His voice. But mortals, unconscious of true identity, listening to the suggestions of the counterfeit carnal mind, are as "reeds shaken by the wind" (Science and Health, p. 269). The suggestion of fear or doubt, unhappiness or lack, disease or sin, knocks for admittance, and if the individual does not know how to protect himself from the intruder, much of it may be accepted into his consciousness. Then the head is bowed down and the heart is heavy laden.

But there is a way out of this chaos of material thinking, and Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has shown us this way. It is to know God, Mind, and His reflection, man, as revealed in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Christ Jesus said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." This, then, "is life eternal," this present knowing, this present understanding of God and His Christ, not to be gained at some far-off time, or in some far-off place, but right where we are now, in the present.

Through this study, this finding out about God and the real man, false material thoughts and beliefs are gradually rejected, and one sees, hears, and thinks as he has never seen, heard, or thought before. Just as light dispels darkness, so Truth dispels error.

"Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to discover their quality, quantity, and origin" (Science and Health, p. 462). Through this study, one can analyze those thoughts which are rapping for admittance. He knows that every good thought is from God; that every wrong thought is from the so-called carnal mind. He learns what to accept, what to reject. He understands how to separate the dross from the gold. God's thoughts lead us ever upward in the path of divine light, where no mortal shadows darken the consciousness filled with Truth, Life, and Love.

As the unfolding bud blossoms into the full beauty of the rose, so the unfolding petals of spiritual thought blossom into the full understanding of God. Then is it realized how Christ, Truth, comes to give "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Let us be awake and listening!

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