To anyone tempted to feel burdened by the seemingly heavy demands made upon him in these fast moving times, Christian Science speaks with tender, divinely intelligent persuasion, bidding him look up and recognize that God's demands come first in importance and that obedience to them makes the yoke easy and the burden light. For Christian Science teaches mankind to exchange the bondage of materiality for the freedom of spirituality, the false sense of living for the true.
The very desire to live rightly is from God and receives God's blessing in the understanding of how to do His will. It is in obedience to God's law that we begin to recognize our sonship with God, our oneness with divine Mind.
In the Bible we find many clear and concise statements of the divine demands, so emphatic as to leave no doubt of their primary importance. One of these divine demands is recorded in Genesis as God's own Word to the patriarch, Abram (Gen. 17: 1), "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." The prophet Micah voices another (6:8): "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" A third is stated in the Master's injunction (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Mary Baker Eddy's inspired revelation of God as infinite Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, marvelously clarifies one's understanding of God's demands. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she writes (p. 183): "Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty." And the nature of the demands is made plain on the preceding page, where she states, "The demands of God appeal to thought only; but the claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, appertain to matter."
Since "the demands of God appeal to thought only," we can well ask ourselves frequently if what we are thinking, saying, and doing is in harmony with God's requirements, or if mundane matters are taking first place in our thoughts. To reverse the natural and divine order of putting God, Spirit, first would hinder our demonstration of harmony and dominion. But starting with God, His goodness, allness, and all inclusive love, one first rejoices in the spiritual, real universe of infinite Mind and its harmonious ideas and then begins to reason truly about everything from this correct, spiritual standpoint, separating in thought the real from the unreal and identifying himself as the reflection of that which is real, spiritual, and divine. To this correct reasoning must be added the whole weight of acting and loving truly.
We can then readily see the significance of our beloved Leader's declaration (ibid., p. 467): "The first demand of this Science is, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love."
Are we burdened by a sense of limited time and strength for all that we must do? Do we rush pell-mell through our many tasks, only half doing them and finding no joy, inspiration, or refreshment in the doing? Then we should ask ourselves whether these demands upon us are from the Father or from suppositional mortal mind. A little quiet examination may reveal that much haste and burden can be avoided by temperance and wisdom. Often, too, we are tempted to be "careful and troubled," as was Martha, "about many things," when "but one thing is needful," namely, that "good part" of obedience to spiritual demands.
Perhaps the so-called demands of family or society seem to rob us of peace. We must be alert not to agree with these thieving suggestions of mortal mind, which would substitute unsatisfying deference to personal sense for the happiness of living and loving from right, spiritual motives. Human relationships are blessed when, in true obedience to Spirit, one brings to them the poise, intelligence, and zest which are nourished in the consciousness aware of the allness of Soul and the nothingness of matter. Whatever the human need may be, it is met by obedience to the spiritual demand.
"But how am I to put the divine demands first," asks the busy mother, "when the children must be fed, the house cleaned, the bills paid, the laundry and the sewing done?" "How am I to find time for study, contemplation, and prayer," asks the workingman or the business executive, "with every waking hour filled?" Each one can meet God's demands because divine Mind supplies the means to do so. First, however, we have to see that what we truly need is to know God and our oneness with Him.
So wise was our revered Leader in foreseeing our need for closer acquaintance with God that she established the Bible Lessons, which many study daily from the Christian Science Quarterly. Truth is our teacher, imparting to us the spiritual facts of our being, inspiring us to demonstrate in daily living the goodness and allness of God, Spirit, Love, and the nothingness, the powerlessness, of matter and evil. The supposed demands of materiality would rob us of this study time, calling it selfish to withdraw from them for even an hour. On the contrary, it is wisdom's way of providing for our well-being.
Quietly partaking of the truths of God and man, we begin to rejoice in our opportunities to prove them, rather than to complain over our trials. We stop battling with situations and people and things and start watching and standing guard over our thoughts so that they may conform more and more perfectly to the goodness of God. In the recognition that He is Love and is infinite and ever present, we love. Because we understand that He is changeless good and has made man perfect, we reflect that goodness in gratitude, honesty, fidelity, unselfishness, humility. Because He is the only power and presence, we are unafraid. In His purity and perfection we rejoice, and in His harmony, bliss, and peace our thought is uplifted to holiness and freedom. Because He is Father and Mother, we look to Him to supply our every need, to guide our every decision.
When we have begun the day thus, consciously obedient to the demands of divine Mind, how harmoniously it progresses hour by hour! Abiding in the correct understanding that God's time, in which all good is present and potent, is now enables us to annul the suggestion of limited time, to accomplish what must be done, and to be in the right place. What we must do we do better and more easily, and what must not be done we avoid doing. The suggestions of error are more quickly handled and silenced. We find time and inspiration for a helpful deed or an expression of affection. We enjoy our activities and are refreshed instead of tired by them, gaining enthusiasm for the tasks next ahead. And when we strive to obey God's demands first, the wisdom is given us how best to use our leisure hours.
Can we ever tire of being more truly grateful, more truly loving, humble, patient, or wise? Never. Qualities derived from Spirit are infinite; therefore their beauty continues to grow upon us in constantly unfolding satisfaction.
Many students of Christian Science find themselves healed of physical discords through willingly yielding obedience to Spirit. One such earnest student had been experiencing deafness in one ear. Faithfully she declared that perfection and freedom were the truth of her being and held to the fact of her God given capacity to hear and understand. But she continued to have difficulty in hearing. Finally in complete humility she prayed, "Father, as long as I can hear Your voice speaking to me, that is all I need, and I know I don't use a physical organ for that!" The joy and self surrender of this prayer resulted in complete healing, to which she gratefully testified in a Christian Science Wednesday testimony meeting.
Patiently, obediently, striving step by step to give first consideration to the divine demands, one finds the so called material demand met or silenced. The human cry for rest, peace, health, and happiness is answered when one turns unreservedly to the Father Mother God, divine Love, seeking to be taught how to love, then faithfully to live what has been learned. This is the scientific and true way to remove all sense of hurry, pressure, and burden, for these discords find no place in the thought that is peacefully, joyfully, obedient to God.
