Christ Jesus repeatedly emphasized his desire to do the will of God. No scene described in all the Scriptures is more revelatory of his paramount purpose to do God's will than is found in the account of his experience in the garden of Gethsemane, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew. Stirred to the depths of his nature at the prospect of Calvary and the cross, the human sense struggled in him for supremacy. "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt," he prayed. What greater exemplification of the subordination of human desire to the divine will could he have given? Destined, as he foresaw, to pass through an experience unequaled in its measure of cruelty and suffering, so intent was he upon carrying out the divine purpose concerning himself that he would endure this greatest trial to do the will of his Father, who, he was convinced, had ordained him to be the Saviour of mankind.
To do God's will is the dearest desire of every true Christian. Every Christian Scientist taking Christ Jesus, as interpreted by Mrs. Eddy, for his great Exemplar has as his highest aim so to subordinate the desires of the flesh to the demands of Spirit as to bring the spiritual into the ascendancy. Our Leader states the problem thus (Miscellaneous Writings, p.208): "Mortals have only to submit to the law of God, come into sympathy with it, and to let His will be done." And she adds in closing the paragraph: "But who is willing to do His will or to let it be done? Mortals obey their own wills, and so disobey the divine order."
Mankind's necessity is to substitute divine will for human desire. This is the true Christianizing process, and upon one's success in accomplishing it depends one's progress Spiritward. No more essential activity confronts men than this! Judged from human standards, the task is not an easy one; nor is it usually accomplished quickly. It is putting off the old man, the mortal or false desires and wrong concepts, thereby giving full expression to the true man, the man of God's creating. It is gaining the Mind of Christ. So long as the human sense predominates in consciousness the struggle goes on, oftentimes, it seems, with varying success, as alternately Spirit and matter seem to be in the ascendancy. But the right desire, supported by earnest and prayerful effort, will gain the desired goal, where God's will is done,—that is to say, where it is, through obedience, recognized that God already reigns, and that His will is done now '"in earth, as it is in heaven."
The Christian Scientist who strives constantly to gain new views of God and to obey His mandates is submitting to His will. He is ever prepared to surrender whatever false desires or selfish interests may seem to be the stumblingblock; for he well knows, in the last analysis, that his only gain is through losing false sense, however real and important it may appear to be, through letting go of all unlike good. He is willing to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye of selfishness, as they impede his progress. Their seeming loss is indeed gain, for no good results from the possession and cherishing of false beliefs.
Men have long held a strong will to be an important factor of success in life. So convinced of this have they been that they have gone to considerable lengths to strengthen it, thus defeating the very purpose which they wish to subserve. At best, human will is but the counterfeit of the divine, since it is based upon a false premise. By no possibility can it be possessed of good; nor can it be transformed into a profitable and worthy factor of success. Mrs. Eddy describes willpower—that is, the exercise of the human will—as an "animal propensity," declaring regarding it in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 490): "Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. Hence it cannot govern man aright." An "animal propensity" is, manifestly, something apart from the universe of God's creating, having nothing in common with Spirit and its attributes; and, moreover, as we read in Genesis, God gave man dominion over all the lesser creatures. Man's dominion over them, established by reason of his divine prerogative, is unimpaired.
The love of self is a precursor of self-will, and both spring from wrong premises. The belief in life apart from God, resident in matter and maintained by it, presupposes a creator other than God, and a creation apart from His universe of perfect ideas. It claims to build a kingdom apart from the divine builder, in which it strives to run its course, dominant, self-centered, and filled with conceit. It is, in short, but the counterfeit, the supposititious opposite, of God's spiritual ideas, striving to pose in the place of reality and divine Truth.
When the student of Christian Science realizes this situation, he becomes desirous of surrendering all that stands between himself and the realization of his perfect selfhood as the child of God. Great is the reward of his obedience! Self-surrender brings one in direct line with the infinite, and the blessings are innumerable. Nothing good and permanent is surrendered. All that expresses Truth, all that reflects divine Love, is retained, while the false and impeding are eliminated. It is the destruction of egotism, the overcoming of a sense of selfhood apart from God. It is the realization of man's unity with his spiritual source. All good is now a part of the actual experience of individual man; for, as Mrs. Eddy declares, "Whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection" (Miscellaneous Writings, p.183). God's will toward man is thus made plain and the proofs established, since God's plan for man is that he be eternally blessed. What more can one desire? We are assured by the poet that
"To do Thy will is more than praise.
As words are less than deeds;
And simple trust can find Thy ways
We miss with chart of creeds."
