"No man," said the great Teacher, "having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Christian Science exacts the same undivided service. "Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obedience, affection, and strength," Mrs. Eddy writes. And she adds, as if to clinch the demand, "No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty" (Science and Health, p. 183). Then the time to decide whether we are ready to yield the "obedience, affection, and strength" which Truth requires, is before we have taken upon ourselves the vows of allegiance. Having once enlisted, however, there can be no relinquishment of the responsibilities we have assumed. We must go forward, keep the onward and upward path at any cost, or be branded as deserters.
We are all builders, in one way or another, and whether the structure we purpose rearing be material or spiritual, there is a certain appositeness in Shakespeare's paraphrase of the Master's counsel to his would-be disciples which should command our attention:—
When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection.
