Whatever the undertaking may be, each one's work in connection therewith is always individual. In the erection of a building, if two persons attempt to do the same work at the same time, confusion, lost effort, and waste of material immediately ensue. Time spent in watching how others are performing their duty is always a sure sign that one is neglecting his own. If the carpenter spend his hours watching the bricklayer, or the plumber the stonecutter, how soon will the structure be completed? Only as each attends to his own task, working honestly and steadily, will each one's work be properly done and in the way to bring about the completion of the whole in the most perfect manner.
In the movement of Christian Science the lesson of the individuality of each one's work seems one of the most difficult to learn. One reason for this is that since the beginning of time there has never been a cause which has so engaged the love and interest of all those connected with it as has this wonderful Cause of Christian Science. The moment one really awakens to the fact that this Science is for the salvation of the world from all evil, his entire heart becomes allied with it and he longs to see all its activities carried on in the wisest and best possible way.
Right here is the first point of danger. With one's desire to see the Cause prosper there will come the temptation to feel he must watch all the activities to see that each and all of them are controlled in the way he feels is right, and that they express what his judgment considers proper. This is where the Christian Scientist must begin to recognize that all work is individual and that he is responsible only for his own, if he is to be really helpful to the Cause he professes to love, and if he is to leave others free to do their work satisfactorily and well.
