TO the Christian Scientist, right occupation includes the fundamental thing—expressing love, or reflecting God, who is Love, in all that he says and does. Wherever he may be—at home, or on the golf links, in society, on the farm, in office, factory, or shop—his duties and activities are to be performed lovingly and efficiently, with kindly consideration for others' welfare and well-being. What an all-embracing duty this is! And did not the Apostle Paul recognize it as such when he declared, "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law"? As the Christian Scientist puts this essential requirement into daily practice, honestly and conscientiously, he finds that his reception of good is correspondingly greater, and that many of the so-called problems which beset humanity are for him nonexistent.
The true Scientist knows that he cannot deviate from this rule of action in the slightest degree, for this deviation would permit the carnal mind to control his thinking, and the human will would then appear to take the place of the divine. Unenlightened human will is a wrongdoer, and brings disaster to the one who uses it. It proceeds from a false sense of self, magnifying its own self-centered viewpoint. Our discerning Leader writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 490): "Human will is an animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. Hence it cannot govern man aright." Love and Truth inspire and govern man. So meekness must be established in our thinking, that the divine will may triumph over human opinions; for, as the Bible teaches, it is "not by might, nor by power," but only by the loving spirit of "the Lord of hosts," that we can rightly accomplish anything. To pray that His will be done is to let Love operate in all our thoughts.
Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, was ever conscious of this fundamental of right occupation; he chose always the way of Love. When any human desire in him wrestled with the divine, he prayed, "Not my will, but thine, be done"—that is, let the will of divine Love alone be expressed. Ever alert to evil's subtle erroneous suggestions, and fully aware of the demands of Love, he refused the temptation to attract the marveling thought of the multitude by casting himself down from a pinnacle of the temple. He glorified God; and glorifying God is a righteous occupation, for it consists in reflecting God, who is Love. Jesus saw that yielding to this temptation to self-glorification would mean placing human will before the divine. So he rightly refused to yield to this or any other deceiving suggestion. He knew that it is only as the human yields to the divine that the allness of Love can be demonstrated. Discerning clearly this great demand of Love, our Leader has written (ibid., p. 43), "The divine must overcome the human at every point."
