Destiny

Evelyn F. Heywood

"Character is destiny," declared the great Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Many centuries later one of the French encyclopedists of the eighteenth century pronounced the same verdict. But of recent years there has been apparent among leaders of thought, among writers and politicians, a wave of fatalism, not new certainly in the history of mankind, but emphasized and encouraged by the trend of events. Intellectually detached, and consistently objective in its analysis, it is distinguished by an absence of moral backbone, by cynical irresponsibility, by a determination to remain, whatever happens, on the side of expediency and self-interest. This attitude is summed up by a modern writer as the admission "that the individual is helpless in the face of 'historic' forces, that the individual indeed is of little account in the march of collective destiny."

He who accepts this verdict abandons the fundamental divine Principle of Christianity; he abandons the right of the individual to find the kingdom of heaven within, a spiritual force, which will ever continue to reveal itself in ways of spiritual courage, steadfastness, and high resolve.

"Ye are the salt of the earth," said Jesus to his disciples, "but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." "To be trodden under foot of men" is exactly what is accepted as the predestined fate of the humanly weak and defenseless in this modern doctrine which makes no demands of the individual but submission to the inevitable domination of material force.

On page 281 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy asks this question: "What is the Ego, whence its origin and what its destiny?" Her great lifework was that of explaining to humanity the practical answer to this question; of proving that since man possesses no origin or destiny apart from his creator, he can know no inevitability except that which proceeds from and is governed by Spirit; he can know no future but that which is designed and wrought of God.

Individually and collectively, the most fundamental question of all times facing men and nations, in every crisis of their history, is whether they shall fulfill their highest destiny or choose a lower and less exacting path. He who takes the easier and humanly more expedient way, may know temporary relief and passing respite from the conflict and persecution which urge surrender, but in so doing he has bargained away that alone which proclaims manhood, that alone which forever identifies him with immortality. In these ways, if he submits to the pressure of intimidation and passing self-interest, will all that is of savor be gradually and inexorably trodden underfoot.

The teachings of Christian Science make it perfectly clear that for humanity there is a continual choice to be made, and if needs be, a battle to be fought. Christ Jesus met fearlessly and dealt selflessly with the many aspects of evil that presented themselves. He laid down his human sense of life to this end; he demanded no less of his followers. But in the place thereof, glorious and forever triumphant, he revealed to them their true destiny, the eternal reflection of Mind. Our Leader has called us to a like willing sacrifice of ease and selfishness, of cowardice and compromise, that we may take our stand, dauntless and untiring as those whom terror and temptation can never trample underfoot. There can be no submission, no even hesitant temporizing with evil. That only is inevitable, that only is destined, which is the eternal, divine unfolding of individual being as revealed in Christian Science. In purpose, in word, in action, the Christian Scientist is called upon to be faithful to his high calling. to refute all fateful prognostication, to withstand the boast of all mortal theories, to meet every attack, physical and mental, which would subdue and submerge the thoughts and lives of men. Within himself each one has the strength inextinguishable, inexhaustible, forever renewed at its divine destiny to withstand, and in the consciousness of his divine destiny to conquer evil with all its attendant satellites of hopelessness and cynicism, apathy and selfishness.

"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid," wrote Paul to the Corinthians. The character of the Christ, manifest in the reflection of the divine Ego, this alone is the foundation on which men can build and be secure. This character expressed in individual lives can offset all evasions and distortions, all subterfuges and capitulations, which but prolong the hour of moral darkness and defeat, barring the way to that divine inheritance which is the forever destiny of man. He who lays hold of Science and lives it fearlessly, in unselfed love and consecration, knows that whatever may come or go in human experience, whatever he may be called upon to do, the only purpose of the seeming warfare between good and evil is being fulfilled. On page 266 of Science and Health our Leader writes, "Such is the sword of Science, with which Truth decapitates error, materiality giving place to man's higher individuality and destiny."

Evelyn F. Heywood

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