THE exponent of a demonstrable religion must keep constantly in touch with its moral and spiritual demands and strive to obey them, if he would ever merit the benediction, "Well done, good and faithful servant." The fruit of the Spirit never matures on the plane of blind belief; it must ripen into enlightened faith and understanding before it can be garnered in demonstration. The followers of Christ Jesus in any age must ever be mindful of advanced steps to be taken in the realm of thought. The law of infinite progression makes unceasing demands upon human consciousness while this consciousness is learning how to surrender to the divine,and sooner or later must it learn that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Mental laziness is one of humanity's besetting sins. It is the inevitable result of obeying the demands of the so-called corporeal senses, and Christian Science has come to sound the key-note of freedom from this bondage of sense existence, to awaken thought from the dream of mortality and to establish the reign of righteousness or spiritual reality. It has come to reiterate and emphasize the demands of Soul in contradistinction to the dictation of sense. It begins with the Mosaic Decalogue, laying special stress upon the First Commandment as being the most comprehensive of all: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." All righteous activity, health, happiness, and success is made dependent upon intelligent obedience to this one great commandment.
Never before in the history of the world has this commandment meant more to the professing Christian than it does today, interpreted in the light of Science. To the student of Christian Science the keeping of this one commandment means the keeping of the other nine. To "have no other gods before me" involves the complete subjugation of sense testimony. It means the demonstration of Mind in the overcoming of all that is unlike God, good. It means proof along all lines of human activity, and not mere profession.
