WE who have turned to the "inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life" (Science and Health, p. 497), as illumined through the teachings of Mrs. Eddy in Christian Science, cannot be too faithful in heeding and obeying the injunction of St. Paul to the Galatians: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Through the consecrated life and works of our revered Leader, the truth taught and practised by Christ Jesus has again been made practical and available to mankind. As in St. Paul's time, we have been called anew, through Christian Science, to demonstrate the liberty "wherewith Christ hath made us free." Are we standing "fast" in that liberty? Are we doing all that we can to promote and protect the cause which must eventually redeem all mankind, mentally, morally, and physically?
According to Scriptural authority, when the Master healed the ten lepers only one returned to glorify God by giving thanks for his moral and physical regeneration. Evidently impressed by the fact that nine out of the ten had failed to return and express gratitude for their healing, the Master pointedly asked: "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?" Many of us, and perhaps the most of us who have subscribed to the tenets of the Christian Science church, have been delivered from the depths of suffering and discordant conditions through the ministrations of Christian Science. Surely we do not wish to be classed with the "nine" who went on their way, so self-satisfied with the physical healing that they overlooked the real healing which comes only as one turns with gratitude to Christ or Truth, and acknowledges Spirit, God, as the redemptive power. Then we should early learn that it is only as we strive to emulate the Master in deed as well as in truth, that we can ever pay our debt of gratitude to God for the blessing of the ever-present Christ-healing made operative today. "Freely ye have received, freely give," is the dictum of Scripture. To give grateful tribute to God and His Christ, and to His messenger to this age, for our physical, moral, and spiritual regeneration, to serve one another and our cause more fervently and faithfully each day, should not only be regarded as a duty but a blessed privilege as we advance in spiritual understanding and become helpful factors in the regenerative work of Christian Science.
All along the way we learn many useful and therefore valuable lessons, and we should not ask that our problems be made easier, but rather pray for an "understanding heart," that we may be better able to meet and master every adverse condition. Through "great tribulation" we arc oftentimes taught some measure of the truth that "it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing," as Christ Jesus said; and in proportion to the steadfastness of our stand on the rock of Christ, as revealed to us through the study of our text-book, will every obstacle to our spiritual progress gradually be removed. We cannot neglect one rung in the ladder of this spiritual ascension, and we cannot watch too vigilantly lest we use our new-found liberty for selfish ends and thus again become entangled in the old material conditions, thereby becoming stumbling-blocks to those whom we wish to bless.
