Two women lost their husbands. In fact, their mother-in-law was all they had left of their family by marriage. The two women finally had to make a choice. They could return to their own people, where they would have a home, family, and security, or they could travel with the mother-in-law to a new land and a strange people. One chose the former. The mother-in-law then said to the remaining widow, "Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law." The woman replied, "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." ^{Ruth 1:15, 16.} The daughter-in-law was, of course, the Bible's Ruth.

Many of us, like Ruth, may be taking a brave journey into an unknown land—the land of Spirit. We may have just discovered the light of Truth in Christian Science. We may be at a point of having to decide whether we will return to our "people"—materialistic traditions, ecclesiastical dogma, creeds, and rituals—or whether we will pursue our Spiritward journey and let the light of Truth lead us into the land of promise.

Like Ruth, we may have to leave behind all that is familiar to us. Even our present friends may turn away from us, for our journey will lead us away from frivolity, self-indulgence, social cliques, religious formalism, perhaps even some family ties.

When Ruth arrived among her mother-in-law Naomi's people, she went gleaning in the fields. Gleaning was a gathering up of the grains left behind in the harvested fields. The master of the fields, Boaz, looked upon Ruth with favor, and eventually he took her for his wife. He voiced his appreciation of Ruth's spirituality in these words: "It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust." ^{Ruth 2:11, 12.}

Our ways are quite different from the ways of those who lived in Biblical times, but there is a vital lesson to be learned in Ruth's devotion, trust, industry, and steadfastness.

Christ Jesus' words in John show us the reaping that must be done in our own journey to the sanctuary of Soul, God—to the land of promise, the kingdom of heaven. He said: "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." ^{John 4:35, 36.}

Wherever there is a need for healing work to be done, there is a need for laborers for the harvest. Sometimes the fields may look entangled with weeds of error, but one by one these will be eliminated by Christ, Truth, until all error loses its claim to reality.

Sometimes, working for all mankind, one may feel alone, with no one to share the vision and appreciate the hours of work involved in the healing prayer that saves. One might even feel tempted to return, figuratively speaking, to the place of one's nativity, where familiar pats on the back and material charities offer compensation for the price of materiality.

But the old ways do not satisfy, and once one begins his journey from sense to Soul, ultimately he cannot go back. The human storehouses of health, joy, and harmony cannot be filled without the harvest and dedicated harvesters. Mrs. Eddy speaks thus of the beauty of work in the Father's fields: "My students, with cultured intellects, chastened affections, and costly hopes, give promise of grand careers. But they must remember that the seedtime is passed, the harvest hour has come; and songs should ascend from the mount of revelation, sweeter than the sound of vintage bells." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 356.}

Christ Jesus left us a sure way to the land of promise. He did not say the way would be easy, but he did show us how to walk in it. The Christ he demonstrated is the Saviour of the world from materialism and its claims of sin, sickness, and death. Through the practice of Jesus' teachings mankind will escape from the so-called world of matter. Therefore the progress of Christ's Church rests on the healing work and the laborer.

The land of promise, eternal harmony—the world of Spirit, God—is won by the Christian doer through the prayers that heal. One's decision at this point to go forward, even through a wilderness of resistance and opposition, to the promised land may be the most important event happening in the world at that moment. Mrs. Eddy's decision to go forward into the newly found world of Spirit and find the Principle that heals and saves as Jesus demonstrated was one of the most important decisions ever made for mankind.

Because of Mrs. Eddy's unselfish labors, all mankind has been touched by the healing Christ, Truth. Although her work met with many challenges, such as the disapproval of family members she loved, she went forward. Of her experience she says: "I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged." ^{Science and Health, pp. 226–227.}

If you find yourself stepping into this new land of Christian Science, you can be sure you are God's vessel, chosen to bring healing to your people. In this journey out of the flesh, one must be willing to leave all the old familiar landmarks behind, no matter how time-honored. One must be willing to glean in God's fields and reap the harvest. There is really nothing in matter to return to. There is no life in matter, or its claims, and therefore no fruitage in matter, no harvest in matter.

In her letter to First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Denver, Mrs. Eddy gives this comforting assurance: "Into His haven of Soul there enters no element of earth to cast out angels, to silence the right intuition which guides you safely home." ^{Mis., p. 152.}