EVERY one who accepts Christian Science can but be deeply impressed with the magnitude of the truth that a perfect God has made man in His image. This truth may come as gently as a June dawn; it may come as the reward of years of eager, weary search, or it may come in a sudden, sense-blinding vision as it came to Saul on the Damascus road, destroying our belief in the material and opening our eyes to the spiritual.
Whatever the manner of its appearing, it certainly comes with power, and we surrender joyfully to its complete control. We have found infallible Principle, and we are likely to think that we can demonstrate it at once. Hereafter evil will be unknown; we shall experience nothing but health and holiness, peace and plenty. This is our vision on the mount, where God Himself shows us the pattern of a saint. We come into our workshop with perfect man clearly defined. We have one model and we can follow it. Before the daylight fails, we think we shall have made our demonstration. But alas, the day lengthens, and we have not yet even refined the gold for our work! We drop our tools and sit down in sad despondency, asking perhaps in our secret thought, "Can it be that this is not a working truth?"
Then a workman more advanced than we whispers in our ear, "Do not forget the 'patience of the saints.'" That whispered word, when comprehended, remands us to a renewed effort. Shall we not as Christian Scientists have the faith of Abraham, who, called of God, went out from his material inheritance and dwelt for weary years amid the uncertainties of mortal experience while he was winning his way to the city that hath foundations? Are we to have less courage than Moses, who learned sainthood through forty patient years of misjudgment at the hands of those he was trying to lead out of their enslavement? Can we not trust God as sturdily as did Elijah when all men were against him and the birds seemed to be his only friends? Is it not possible for us to be as unflinching as was Paul, who counted himself "less than the least of all saints"? Are we not impelled to emulate our Leader's unfailing patience and hope? and must we not with all these try to follow the steps of our Master, as in loving patience he moved steadily forward to the completion of his sublime proofs of the allness of God, good, in Gethsemane, on the cross, and in the tomb? Are we to be discouraged if our ideal is not at once realized in our experience? We must do our work as our exemplars have done theirs, "in the secret place of the most High," and the very slowness of our demonstration may indeed give us a deeper and more enduring grasp on Truth.
