THE mellow harvest days have come again, to bring to many the rich fruitage of their own faithfulness, and to remind others of the saying that "we must bring to wealth all its value; we must do, if we would possess." Laziness seems appallingly vast in the aggregate, and it is ever arguing how much easier it is to part company with vexatious labor, to commit one's problems to others and believe and do what they say, than to enter into the wrestling with great questions and issues for ourselves. This is the average well-meaning man's greatest enemy, and when the fallacy is consented to, it becomes a menace to all spiritual growth.
To establish the self-assurance that we have faith in Christ is one thing, to prove that we have this faith is quite another, and this substitution of theory for demonstration has been the stupendous mistake of historical Christianity. The genius of saving faith is expressed in the willingness to work, and that this was so strikingly illustrated in the history of the Founder of the Christian Science movement, explains in large part her remarkable achievements. Her spirit and teaching are never more utterly misapprehended than by those who think that she promised her followers relief from the strenuous life. The truth is that, while eschewing profitless strain and struggle in both its impulsion and its demands, Christian Science means alert and continuous response to St. Paul's injunction, "Work out your own salvation."
Emerson has well said that "though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to any man save through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till," and as the year's ingathering days are being lived again, those who are garnering a relatively scanty crop will be reminded, perchance, that its explanation lies in the fact that they have not worked with the energy and earnestness which would have been in keeping with their, privilege and opportunities.
