WHEN Edwin Markham said, "Nothing is worth the making if it does not make the man," he uttered a sentiment which should open thought to the definite question, "What is man?" Unless man is conceived of spiritually, we do not get the true answer; for the standards of human thought regarding man have as many interpretations as there are tongues, nations, or personalities. Perfect man, the idea of perfect God, is never found in matter. Therefore, our essential work as Christian Scientists is not to conciliate mankind, but it is to prove man to be the son of God. The unfolding of this spiritual fact constitutes both our work and our glory, and demands that our present-day activities be beautifully good, usefully and unselfishly kind, sweetly and purely happy; otherwise they are not of God, nor of man in His image.
Though only step by step do we learn to walk as Jesus walked, we should keep ever uppermost in our thought the sacred promise, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." How futile it would be to look to mortal mind for the accomplishment of these works; but as we look with divine assurance to God alone, as Jesus did, the healing works which glorify Him will naturally follow. It stands to reason that if we look to matter or with matter for anything, our works will be subject to change and decay; but as we look unreservedly to the divine Mind as the source of all supply, and loyally abide within that Mind by reflecting it, we shall behold divine Love meeting all human need. John counsels us: "Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father."
Now Christ Jesus tells us very emphatically that the devil— evil— was "a murderer from the beginning;" and, speaking of himself as "the door of the sheep," he said, "all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers." Hence it behooves us to be wise in excluding from our thought the claims of the murderer (mortal mind) and in barring our mental door to its false pretensions, its thieves and robbers. However much they cry, however plausible the enticement to listen, however uncomfortable these traitors may make us feel, the rule of Christian Science voiced by Mrs. Eddy on page 261 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" holds good: "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." Then, where is the murderer? Where are the thieves and robbers? Nowhere! Fear, doubt, lack, false appetites, dishonesty, depression are mere ghostly illusions which tempt mortals through the mesmeric argument that life and mind are in matter. In Christian Science we see these lies for what they are— nothing; and consciously abiding in Truth and Love we exclude them from our thought.
