I WAS working out a problem in Christian Science and I thought of this Scriptural passage: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Do we seek to be clean first:' When a sense of pain makes its claim do we as faithfully seek to rid ourselves of the cause of that pain as the pain itself? We do wish to be pure I trust, but is the wish first? We all desire to demonstrate Truth, but do we love to be cleansed so that we can successfully demonstrate? Do we desire Love and its patient work, the humility it brings, the self-sacrifice, the faithful endurance, and the labor, or do we work for the sense of material good it brings?
Even when we go back of suffering for the wrongful thought, do we do it to get relief, or is it for the unselfish purpose of getting rid of one more falsity of self? If we seek both, which most?
Lately a sense of awakening has come to me of that which has kept us from God, and its repulsiveness is such that I have felt that suffering is the least of our trials. But to be washed clean of envy, jealousy, hatred, etc.,—those foes which in their subtle forms lead us to work against those who best serve us, against the good and loyal, against long-suffering Love—oh! I have felt that physical suffering is naught if it but leads us to rise out of these false conditions and seek first His righteousness. Good shall surely follow seeking the kingdom of God first, and all material needs be supplied. To diligently work for Love because we love, would bring true results where often there is now defeat. We are too apt to look to see if the answer is right when there can be no answer because the example has not been correctly wrought. If we were sure the numerals were correct, that our work was based on the unswerving Principle, would we fear about results?
