Many students of Christian Science can recall the feeling of enthusiasm which took possession of them when they first began to realize something of the significance of this Science, with all the broad vista of hope, joy, and freedom that it opens up to wondering and often incredulous mortals. But enthusiasm tends sooner or later to evaporate, particularly when a little experience shows that unless supported by earnest effort it avails nothing. The trouble is that even when the necessity for such effort is recognized, error, which is always on the alert to prevent progress along the pathway of Truth, as often as not puts forth subtle suggestions to the effect that there is nothing more to do, but that enthusiasm is an end in itself, and that therefore all the rest may be left to time and the unseen working of Spirit. Mortal mind indeed often offers much the following sort of advice: Declare loudly in season and out of season that you know that the teachings of Christian Science are as true as they are beautiful and sublime; read so much of the week's Lesson-Sermon as is comprised in the Golden Text, the Responsive Reading, and the section corresponding to the particular day of the week; go to one service on Sundays, and on Wednesdays to testimony meetings, on the lookout for "marvelous" instances of healing from "really serious" claims; attend lectures by the authorized lecturers, and express approval of them afterwards; take an occasional dip into the textbook or other works by our Leader and into the periodicals—do all this, and you will have adequately fulfilled the demands of Christian Science upon you! Is it an exaggeration to say that the above procedure is a fair summary of the activities of many of us who nevertheless are sincerely desirous of becoming true, that is, practical Christian Scientists, and that the disappointment often expressed by some of us at our slow progress in the right direction is due to this little better than passive attitude toward the task of working out our own salvation?
As a matter of fact, if we are content to continue thus, we are in much the same case as those to whom our Leader refers on page 20 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," who, although baptized, partaking of the Eucharist, supporting the clergy, observing the Sabbath, and making long prayers, yet remain sensual and sinful. Paul bids us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. In order to do this we must be active. The passive condition, implying as it does contentment with our present state, does not give rise to these emotions, but treads the "primrose path of dalliance," troubled not at all by the imperative call to be constantly striving to attain more and more in the line of progress. Even in human affairs it is recognized that to stand still is to court failure and the mortification of being passed on the highway of life by those who are more energetic and determined; and much more is this the case when it is a question of grappling with the work of endeavoring to understand God.
The often quoted Latin proverb, "Nihil sine labore," "Nothing without labor," applies to endeavors to become spiritual just as surely as it does to mundane affairs; but with this great and encouraging difference —namely, that many of those who are industriously persevering in their efforts to win success in what is termed the struggle for existence are sooner or later confronted by the bitter realization that they have reached the bounds of their capacity or endurance, through a belief in either limited ability, absence of opportunity, or lack of physical strength and energy to do more; whereas he who is engaged in working out the problem of being in the light of Mrs. Eddy's teachings, finds that the more he strives to attain, the more surely does the way open out before him; the more surely are seeming obstacles to progress surmounted; and the more confident does he become that the divine Mind, which unfolding comprehension reveals to him that man reflects, will unfailingly broaden his understanding and lead him "into all truth." There is no failure for the earnest seeker after God; but an essential of success is to have the loins girded—that is, to be ever ready to take the next step required of us.
