Isaiah declares of God, "The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee." How often in modern times is this desire but a mere abstraction and a frequent cause of self-deception! Sincere though it may seem to ourselves, no desire is of real value unless our lives, also our works, bear witness to our entire consecration to God, good.
The uncompromising searchlight of Truth will uncover within us many a mental reservation and hesitation, will dislodge from secret hiding places human weaknesses lurking in oblivion. Multitudes find themselves today "in the valley of decision," to use the words of Joel, as one after another the material props on which they have depended disappear in the present whirlpool of human thought. Cherished customs and traditions are being swept away by the rushing torrent of destruction, and smiling meadows of meditation, deemed by human sense to be indestructible, lie bare and desolate. The tremulous and the half-hearted have no place even in the world's program at this epoch; how much less in the kingdom of heaven, where whole-hearted loyalty is demanded. Unless we realize that "we live, and move, and have our being" in God, we do not live—we dream.
Many who first approach Christian Science are impelled thither by dire need, through mental or physical misery. Some come only to get, to take; but many remain to give. The need of the moment being met, it is necessary to beware lest we relapse into complacent ease or return to wrong habits of thought. The steadfast ones push forward to the front ranks, having as Christian Scientists enlisted to "lessen evil, disease, and death" (Science and Health, p. 450). These become units in the great army of pioneers treading the path which our Master indicated and which our Leader mapped out, working and praying for the complete emancipation of mankind.
