MANY beautiful experiences have come to students of Christian Science as the result of allegiance to its Cause. New friendships have been formed, homes made happy, financial conditions improved, better concepts of health gained; and fetters of varying forms of false belief or superstition have been loosened. These are some of the effects of this fealty, the things added outwardly as signs of spiritual peace, joy, and contentment. And all these are concomitants of right doing, which ever accompanies true thinking; and in the last analysis this is true progress.
When first the loveliness of the teaching of Christian Science dawns on the enraptured thought, one may be tempted to pause and simply drink in the delightsome view of the promised land; but soon there follows realization of the necessity of progress, and the earnest one mentally fares forth to meet this reasonable requirement. At this point much encouragement is to be found in an inspired pronunciamento of Christian Science penned by our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, on page 256 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must yield to the infinite. Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal."
As their thoughts rise to this higher level of action, Christian Scientists prove again and again the soundness of that statement. They find that improved thinking gives impulse to better words and deeds, and that they are learning not only the meaning of the first and second commandments, but that these two base all the others. Then obedience to the Decalogue becomes a joy, and it is found that the words, "Obedience to law is liberty," are true and provable. Not, however, by one step is complete emancipation from false belief won, but by repeated yielding. The exchange of the finite for the infinite is the obedience which glorifies God.
Within The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, there is wide opportunity for usefulness; and as one seeks and attains membership in this church and one of its branch churches, the necessary prayer and demonstration give one a spiritual understanding of Church and a keen appreciation of church membership. There also comes a deeper sense of the obligations this entails, together with a growing consciousness of the power of ever present divine Love, supporting every forward step.
The daily prayerful study of the textbooks of Christian Science,— the Bible and Science and Health,— steps in obedience, signs of yielding, bring daily triumphs over the temptations of personal sense. This study includes frequent references to the Saviour's instructions to his students in what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. These bring an ever recurrent and satisfying sense of the allness of Love, of protection and of encouragement to every righteous endeavor.
In participating in the activities of a committee on distribution of Christian Science literature, one may learn the true meaning of both charity and benevolence; for often one hears of the healing of the false belief of lack, disease, or sin brought about through a ministering article in the Christian Science periodicals. Greater opportunities for usefulness are constantly presented. Sunday schools, lectures, Reading Rooms, present opportunities for ardent prayer and earnest work on the part of every student. There is, indeed, a vast field of usefulness for all.
Subscribers to and readers of the Christian Science periodicals find themselves in coordination with the movement which is enlightening humanity. By taking these two steps, namely, subscribing for and reading the periodicals, the student is acceding to a loving request of our Leader, thereby complying with one of the requirements of Section 14, Article VIII, of the Manual of The Mother Church.
If, however, despite faithful responses to the calls of one's highest sense of duty, right activity, and fidelity to our beloved Cause, error should attempt to whisper or even to talk loudly of trials or difficulties to be overcome; if a Red Sea of discouragement should seem to confront one, presenting an impasse to progress; if forbidding cliffs of opposition to our best efforts should frown on the right hard and on the left; if the Egyptian darkness of hatred should seem to pursue, one can still rest assured that by steadfastly pressing on the situation will be healed, and comfort and harmony found. Thought should be well attuned to our Leader's words (Science and Health, pp. 226, 227): "I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged." This example of her continuous progress is a reminder that the one method of working out the problems involved in human experience is by the way of obedience and of yielding finite sense to infinite Truth. Only by pressing on can one hope to reach that state of consciousness where freedom is found and peace assured ; for these belong to the natural and inalienable status of man in God's likeness. Those who practice Mrs. Eddy's precepts for any length of time are fully aware that her assuring words are a clarion call to more consecrated service in this great Cause, a demand that they, too, press on until they reach that mental realm where fetters fall, loosed by the hand of progress.
In the light of Christian Science, there are vast implications in the word "freedom." It implies freedom from faults, from lack, from limitation—freedom from the shackles of the false beliefs of personal sense. What an attainment! How well worth the most devoted, painstaking, persistent effort on the student's part! Obedience, yielding—precedents to final deliverance ! The Psalmist says: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord up-holdeth him with his hand."
