SOMETIMES the student of Christian Science becomes discouraged because he believes that he is not making any progress, or, at least, very little. Then it is that he must look within his own consciousness to see what is seeming to deaden his spiritual sense and keep him from realizing "the joy of salvation."
In his great commandment, Jesus tells us what we must do if we are to inherit eternal life (Luke 10:27): "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Do we love God supremely? If so, we are joyfully living to glorify God, infinite good, divine Love, in our every thought, word, and deed, and we are constantly turning away from self-will and praying, "Not my will, but thine, be done." Loving God supremely requires that we be ever alert to error's argument that we make little mental reservations in order to gratify self and its personal sense of things. We know through the teachings of Christian Science that the one Mind is indivisible and admits of no halfhearted allegiance. We have faith in God's love for us because we know that God is unchanging Principle, divine Love, and that man is His loving and lovable idea.
Another question we should perhaps ask ourselves is, "Am I loving my brother in the way Jesus outlined?" If so, we can answer the question (Gen. 4:9), "Where is ... thy brother?" by saying, "He is where he always has been, at one with the Father, living and moving in infinite Life and Love, reflecting all good, even as my true selfhood is." If we are selfish, resentful, unloving, indifferent, sensitive, or critical; if hatred smolders deep in our consciousness; if we are dissatisfied, envious, or jealous, surely we must answer as Cain did, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The honest answers to these questions may uncover a reason for our seeming dearth of spiritual riches, and, if they do, we can immediately proceed to liberate and spiritualize our thought about our fellow man.
