How important it is to learn that while we are working with our hands, we can at the same time be thinking Godlike thoughts. It is neither necessary nor profitable to become physically idle or mentally lazy while waiting for some anticipated event. Such states always cause stagnation and weave cobwebs in one's thinking.

A stagnant condition had developed in the thinking of some of the members of the young church which Paul had founded at Thessalonica. They had been taught to expect soon the second coming of Christ. Thinking that his advent was imminent, they quit their work and lived upon others. Their loafing and their imposing on others made them disorderly or idle busybodies.

Timothy had been sent back to visit the Thessalonian church, and it was after his return that Paul wrote his two epistles to the Thessalonians. These were church letters, and Paul addressed them to all the brethren. Here they were told how to conduct themselves while waiting for Christ's appearing. They were advised to go back to their work and were told that if any man was unwilling to work, he had no right to eat. And while endeavoring to keep them busy with their hands, Paul also gave his friends spiritual rules to follow. One of these rules was (I Thess. 5:17), "Pray without ceasing."

To pray without ceasing may have seemed as impossible to them as perhaps it did to us before the Christ, Truth, appeared to our consciousness. But when the ever-present Christ unfolds to one through spiritual understanding gained through the study of Christian Science, he sees clearly that unceasing prayer is possible and that Scriptural instructions are capable of fulfillment.

Paul's timely advice to the Thessalonians is just as appropriate and necessary today as it was then, because the same so-called carnal mind that influenced some of the brethren at Thessalonica to become idlers and busybodies is just as vigorously at work today. This pseudo mind would constantly present itself at the door of consciousness in the guise that is most likely to deceive, and constant vigilance is required to forestall its entrance.

In her inspiring chapter on Prayer in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy tells us how to pray without ceasing. She says (p. 4): "The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the blessings they bring,—blessings which, even if not acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be partakers of Love."

In Christian Science the striving to be good includes our replacing every material belief that confronts us—whether about ourselves or others—with the spiritual truth of God and of man's relation to Him. The process is purely mental. We do not have to be in any certain place, with a special group, or on bended knee in order to conduct ourselves in this righteous manner. Neither is it necessary to dispense with needful human activities. But wherever we are, whatever we are doing, whether alone or with others, we can always put forth the effort to look through the mist of materiality and behold divine reality. We can consistently desire to know and do the will of our Father-Mother God and then put into practice what He reveals to us. This is praying, and as we do this steadfastly, we are praying without ceasing.

The "struggle to be always good" must become habitual in order that we may accomplish the most good for ourselves and others. At no place in our Leader's writings does she indicate that our journey from sense to Soul can be achieved without persistent effort. She tells us (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 341), "Seeking is not sufficient whereby to arrive at the results of Science: you must strive; and the glory of the strife comes of honesty and humility."

We learn in Christian Science that man's true selfhood is the image and likeness of God, Spirit; therefore man is spiritual. He does not have to struggle to be good. He is already the expression of infinite good, God, and includes by reflection every phase of good requisite for his well-being. Man is the effect of God's knowing and hence is inseparable from Mind, God.

We need, however, to strive diligently to realize and prove that this perfect, spiritual man of God's creating is the only man there is and that we are in reality spiritual and perfect. If man's spiritual perfection is not a present fact, it cannot be demonstrated. We can only demonstrate that which is true and present. The Bible says (Hos. 1:10), "In the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God."

In the proportion that we habitually reason from the standpoint of perfect God and perfect man and mentally reject any suggestion that does not measure up to this perfect standard, we shall "arrive at the results of Science." When our motives are right, we find blessings flowing into our lives.

Our striving should be not merely to gain a physical healing or to be released from some enslaving habit, but to gain a correct understanding of God and man. When we gain this understanding and put it into practice, the healings come also. As we strive to keep God or good in our thoughts, let us remember these assuring words (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 194):