As we approach the end of the year we are accustomed to look over its experiences in order that we may rate ourselves and find how much has been gained during the months which have gone by. Mrs. Eddy's definition of year, which begins on page 598 of Science and Health, reveals in a remarkable way the spiritual possibilities of this period of time when rightly understood, and we cannot do better than keep ever before us this statement: "One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.... Eternity is God's measurement of Soul-filled years."
That account-taking is a mental and spiritual process is clearly brought out in the Master's teachings, and as it is always better to forestall the temptation to mistakes or wrongdoing, it is well to recall ofttimes this warning given by him: "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Proceeding along the same line, we come to his parable of the unjust steward which appears in the sixteenth chapter of Luke. It seems that this servant was accused of having wasted his master's goods, and so he was called upon to give an account of his stewardship, and to retire from office.
It at once becomes apparent that this parable has a close relation to that of the talents, where we see the tremendous possibilities of faithfulness and energy based upon an understanding of the demands of Principle, which is brought out in the experience of the "good and faithful" servants. In the case of the other, the man who was totally blind to the righteous requirements of Principle and who allowed personal considerations to dominate his thought, we see the evil results of wasting our Lord's goods by burying our one talent in the ground. This mental state is classed by Christ Jesus as "wicked," "slothful," and "unprofitable," and the parable contains a vital warning against the domination of such mental conditions in the working out of our problems, whether they relate to human affairs or to spiritual reality, the understanding of which alone can bring true success in any line of endeavor.
