The great Apostle to the Gentiles, who had remained faithful through many trials and tests, left this gem of truth for all valiant Christian warriors and lovers of good: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."
To obtain "a crown of righteousness" is the goal of every Christian Scientist. To human thought a crown symbolizes everything that the human mind has thought of as desirable, that is, power, dominion, and wealth. The Christian Scientist is seeking power, abundance, dominion, and glory, but he is seeking them from an entirely different source and for an entirely different purpose than is the materialist. The Christian Scientist's desire is to be a citizen of God's kingdom of good, to be governed by God, to be controlled by God, to be obedient to God. He wants no earthly crown; he rejects false ambition and unworthy aims. He desires only the "crown of righteousness," the government of good, the abundance of God's ideas, the glory of reflected love. He does not want to rule others, but to help them to learn how God rules and controls all. He wants to help others to prove their dominion derived from God and to free themselves from the domination of material sense.
The Christian Scientist desires to express the love and goodness of God. He desires abundance not for selfish ease, but that he may reflect more of good. He wants his consciousness of good to be glorified, not to exalt self, but to glorify God. He is seeking the power of God so that he may exercise more spiritual power in doing the will of God, and is praying from his heart so to live as to honor and glorify his creator.
