The genuine Christian strives to trust God. This is the basis and substance of his Christianity. His warfare, however, is with the elements of human nature that would rob him of such trust; and here the Science of Christianity, coming to the world through the spiritual discoveries of Mrs. Eddy, does service to Christian and non-Christian alike. The truth concerning the nature and law of God which is revealed in Christian Science, discloses also the traps and pitfalls of mental habit which await our trust; it effects an uncovering of the evil elements of human nature which are disabling to true faith. While right desire, if ignorant of its enemies in the human heart, sometimes makes little headway, spiritual alertness, when brought to bear upon errors well exposed, gains many spiritual victories. So trust gains greater freedom and faith more active play when fostered by Christian Science; when mental confusion is corrected, God's purpose for man comes better into view.
The one thing most obstructive to the plan of God is the human plan. What we want gets between us and what God wants. We make fine speeches about leaving things with God; we really believe we want His will done, and yet have we permitted the plumb-line of His will to go down to the bottom of our wilfulness? Does His law meet welcome from our idolatry and our self-love? It is beyond argument that peace and healing do flood our lives as fast as our resistance gives way and lets them in. When therefore help comes slowly, are we honestly desiring God before all else? We covet His way and our way too, perhaps; His way as we would plan it,—these are the instincts within us that sometimes give way hard. His way alone, however, gloriously outshining all earth's desires; His way, at all cost to ours, —this is real surrender. And when this occurs there need be no interval between the humble prayer and its all-good, all-satisfying answer; for "righteousness and peace have kissed each other" and heaven and earth are one.
In his figure of cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye for the sake of the kingdom of good, Christ Jesus pointed plainly to the human desires from which we must rid our thoughts if we hope to be happy. Human beings cannot always have their own way. Could the spectacle of a continuously gratified selfishness occur in one life, it would be at the expense of the freedom of others. Our relationships and mutual activities are such that he would be a monster who showed no consideration for other wills than his own. Then if a whole gratification of self is bad, a degree of it is unwholesome. If some consideration for others makes us happy, surely greater concern for them brings more joy, while a complete surrender of self would mean the whole of heaven. But, we may say, he who has no will of his own is beaten by wills many about him. Yes; and the most of human experience is a contest of wills. Yet he whose purpose prevails and he whose purpose fails are equally in error if personal will alone animates them. To flee one's own will and through divine help to yield obedience to none other except as such compromise works out for good, is to move in the right direction until God's will shall appear supremely. The Christian Scientist, he who gives thanks because he has at last found the true God, has least of all excuse if he clings to any remnant of his own personal way.
