ONE great blessing for which the true Christian Scientist has to be thankful is the opportunity and necessity for study; and why? Simply because he has found that genuine study is the first requisite of genuine accomplishment, the high stepping-stone to practical demonstration, to the plane whereon mankind master the art of doing things. He who studies earnestly does not fail to learn, to understand; and he who thus learns and understands obeys implicitly the apostolic injunction, "Work out your own salvation, " thereby proving his knowledge by his deeds.
A wide-awake Christian Scientist has no time to be idle. Any Scientist who in the least indulges idleness blocks his own way to success by disregarding those opportunities at hand which are quite ample for bringing him the daily strength and uplift he needs and must have ere he can go forward. Such a one is untrue to his trust, unmindful of his duty. As he trifles with the grand possibilities before him, his lethargy and carelessness cannot help but bring suffering and sorrow. Such a one is asleep on the shore of activity, deaf to the clarion call of progress and blind to the good everywhere about him.
Some time ago, a young student of our literature who for three or four years had been most diligent in the search for truth as taught in Christian Science, was tempted to exchange a portion of the time given to its study for mere amusement and idleness. The tempter declared that health had already been restored, that thought was harmonious in every way, and that there was no need of such strict application as had been deemed necessary up to this time. Outlining a course of -action to serve as a substitute for the regular routine, the tempter further declared that an occasional hold upon the Bible and the Christian Science text-book through the medium of the Lesson-Sermon, together with a brief inspection of other Science literature, was sufficient, and that it would bring just as satisfactory results as past experiences had brought; that every man and woman, whether a Scientist or not, needed diversion and recreation, —entertainment, in the popular sense of the terms, —and that to forego these meant harm to one's self. So crafty and seemingly sincere was this mortal mind talker that the young student stopped a moment and listened; then questioned; then argued, and then, as is quite likely to be the case under such circumstances, mortal mind won the day.
