In Deuteronomy (4:9) is this statement: "Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently." The Christian Scientist recognizes that when the word "soul" is not a definite synonym for God it signifies, according to the context, spiritual or material sense. No one needs more carefully to obey the counsel of Moses than does the Christian Scientist engaged in the ministry of healing. "Keep thy soul," means to preserve thy spiritual sense, thy clear, sure understanding of the ever-present Christ, Truth.
No Christian Scientist should let his thinking down into materiality. This is especially true for the Christian Science practitioner because his work bears so intimately upon the lives of others. Jesus recognized the careless, mentally lazy propensities of the so-called mortal mind very clearly. He said (Matt. 24:43, 44): "But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched. . . . Therefore be ye also ready."
Are we always ready to see Spirit as the only reality, to see the real, God-made man as the only man that truly exists? Are we instantly prepared to deny the reality of sickness, sin, and sorrow, and to maintain Life's spiritual perfection? Are we constantly ready to see the unreality of unkindness, inefficiency, spite, and to replace their apparent presence with Mind's qualities of love, intelligence, and helpfulness?
