IN our pilgrimage from materiality to spirituality, like the children of Israel before us, we may need to pass through the experiences of the Red Sea and the wilderness. Jesus, the Way-shower, had many trials and temptations while working out his own salvation. The many years of receptivity to good and of careful preparation for his healing ministry are frequently overlooked in the study of his marvelous accomplishments, when teaching and practicing the spiritual truths he had learned. According to the statement of the writer to the Hebrews, Jesus "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." We, too, must prove the reality and permanence of good, the unreality and impermanence of evil.
Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, was a consistent, faithful follower of the teachings and practices of Christ Jesus. With the meekness and humility which always accompany true greatness, she tells us in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 4), "Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ." In her writings occur numerous references to the necessity of realizing clearly that spiritual activity is of paramount importance, and that the real man of Spirit's creating is governed in this activity by God's law of eternal unfoldment and progress. We should not go backward; we should not stand still; we should and finally must go forward! Either here or hereafter, each one of us must prove that God is All-in-all; and each must therefore overcome all false beliefs of power, presence, substance, and law apart from God. Deviations from the demands of divine Principle—Life, Truth, and Love—appear as the problems of human experience, all of which must be solved. When considered as opportunities for learning about the great truths of spiritual existence, they are much more easily worked out. We should therefore cease whining over the mental work to be done.
We should realize clearly that there is an important difference between ignoring the discordant conditions of human experience and rejecting them by overcoming them. In considering these opposites it is helpful to review their derivations. "Ignore" is derived from the Latin word ignorare, meaning to have no knowledge of. Our word "ignorance" has the same derivation. When we ignore the necessary solving of a life-problem, we remain in ignorance of the spiritual fact which is the opposite of the erroneous condition. "Reject" is derived from the Latin word rejicere, meaning to throw or cast back. Consequently, in order to reject error effectively, we must have knowledge of the spiritual fact which must replace it; that is to say, we must understand the truth. The decision to adhere to the spiritual fact is inseparable from the rejection of the error. Obviously, no such decision has been made when a discordant condition is ignored.
