TAKE IT EASY

CAROLINE B. WINGERT

In the stirring times in which we find ourselves it is not at all uncommon to hear as a farewell admonition among friends the familiar expression, "Take it easy." This phrase, however, will bear careful scrutiny, for is it not in most instances intended as a warning against undue physical exertion, and does it not overlook that part of one's thinking which has to do with one's well-being? Yet, the Scripture informs us that as one "thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7).

True, the unthinking tendency among men is to drift along with the established beliefs that man is a physical personality, a combination of matter and mind, and that this so-called matter acts independently of mind in experiencing fatigue and other untoward physical conditions which in turn must be physically guarded against. This tendency leads to the frequent reminder: "Don't overdo. Take it easy." There is no Scriptural authority for accepting the theory that man is a physical person. The Bible is very definite on this point. In Romans we read (8:9), "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." And Mary Baker Eddy tells us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 119), "Man is free from the flesh and is individual in consciousness—in Mind, not in matter."

In what sense, then, should one take it easy? Let us consider what the word "easy" actually means. One dictionary defines it in part as follows: "Free from ... care, worry, constraint, etc. ... Moderate; unhurried." Accepting this definition, we may well heed the admonition, because taking it easy in this way would produce a stabilizing effect rather than an inhibiting sense of fear.

Actually, the world's need is for heavenly-mindedness, not mere physical ease. The call of the hour is for mankind to rise out of material-mindedness and thus break the earth weights which would feter progress and bind man to the earth. Not ease in matter is requisite, but perennial activity in the line of spiritualization of thought. Paul must have seen this when he wrote in his epistle to the Romans (8:6), "To be spiritually minded is life and peace." Mrs. Eddy tells us in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 218), "The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of repose in unconsciousness."

The writer has had many proofs of the correctness of this statement from the textbook. She recalls one time in particular when demands seemed so great that she felt she could not possibly meet and master them. The urge was persistent to seek rest in unconscious sleep, if only for a short time, before proceeding with the very demanding commitments that lay ahead of her. She had, however, learned the value of conscious mental rest rather than unconscious physical repose; so she asked herself some searching questions concerning the one and only presence, which she had learned in Christian Science to acknowledge as the one God, or Mind. Could Mind, God, possibly experience exhaustion? No. And what, she asked herself, was her authority for that answer? Biblical, of course. We read in Isaiah (40:28), "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?"

God's image and likeness, man, could not be so unlike God as to be wearied beyond measure. And why? Because image or reflection must of necessity be exactly like the original. Man as God's image could not possibly be otherwise than as God caused him to be. Could God's man know anything that God was not causing him to know? She had to concede that the answer was, No. The results of her reasoning proved again the truth that error of any kind must yield to correct spiritual reasoning and revelation. She experienced immediate refreshment and relaxation. What had threatened to be a day of overwhelming requirements and responsibilities became a joyous day of result accomplishment.

The ease which is spiritual calm is the only ease accepted by the Christian Scientist. The only right way to take it easy is indicated in Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health, p. 99): "The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man."

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