SABBATH REST

An entirely new concept of rest is found in the teaching of Christian Science. It is because of this new light on the question of what constitutes real rest that Christian Scientists often arrange their vacations with a special interest in making them an opportunity for spiritual refreshment, rather than a mere matter of miles of travel or rushing around seeking personal pleasure.

The Christian Science textbook "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, explains that "God rests in action" (p. 519). Man is God's reflection; therefore man too "rests in action." Humanity often believes that inaction, idleness, and even sheer laziness are the sources of refreshment. Inaction has no quality of renewal; it is the consciousness of good which strengthens and vivifies.

A writer one summer sought solitude in a mountain spot, hoping to shut himself away in a cabin where he could have complete quiet for his writing. But a long experienced man of the mountains counseled him otherwise. He said that the work could best be accomplished not within silent walls, but beside a creek, with birds singing all around and the mountain breeze stirring in the trees. He too had some understanding of the fact that peace of mind does not flower in an atmosphere of inactivity and stagnation, but thrives in the midst of harmonious activity. His counsel proved valuable, and in the early morning hours the writing was completed with spontaneous inspiration on a hillside by a stream, where the freshness and beauty and activity of nature were reminders of the harmonious and peaceful action of divine Mind.

God's restful activity is recorded in the account of creation in the first book of the Bible. And in the chapter called "Genesis" in Science and Health Mrs. Eddy makes it clear that the seven days of creation are not actually seven calendar days in which various parts of creation came into being; but she reveals to us that the record of creation is an unfolding explanation of the glorious spiritual creation, which is forever complete and has always coexisted with God, the creator. When the Biblical account reaches the point where it states that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," and that "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them" (Gen. 1:31 and 2:1), we are then told that God rested. The description of the completeness and perfection of creation is called six days, and the rest which accompanied this wholeness, right activity, and perfect co-ordination of everything in God's universe, is called the Sabbath, or seventh day. It is obviously a state of consciousness, a realization of everything working together harmoniously under control of an all-wise law.

Moses, in the fourth commandment, taught the children of Israel that they too should observe this Sabbath rest. The ritualistic religionists of Jesus' day bitterly condemned the healing work which he did on the seventh day of their week, because their concept of this fourth commandment was so materialistic and literal that they felt Jesus' holy work was an act of disobedience to God's command.

Jesus had a much clearer understanding of the spiritual meaning of that command; on every occasion he kept the Sabbath, for he rested in the consciousness of God's love and the present perfection of His creation. It was discord, pain, crippled capacities, sin, and impaired faculties which dishonored the Sabbath and claimed to be able to overthrow men's right to the rest which accompanies a consciousness of health, freedom of thought and action, and purity. Jesus restored to the sufferers their Sabbath rest and thus honored the fourth commandment more perfectly than anyone else had ever done.

Jesus' healing work expressed the qualities of the two angels which are specifically described in Science and Health—Michael and Gabriel. We are told that "Michael's characteristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering Love" (pp. 566, 567). Mrs. Eddy adds in the same paragraph: "The Gabriel of His presence has no contests. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin sickness, nor death."

When through the courageous fight we wage against evil's pretense to power, and through our affirmations of the complete dominion of Truth over error, we reach the blessed realization of Love's ever-presence, the omniaction of good, and the unfailing and ever-operative wisdom of Mind, we have attained the Gabriel consciousness, which is Sabbath rest.

Jesus' ability to rest in the holy consciousness that good alone is true resulted in repeated instantaneous healings. At times, however, the Christian Scientist finds that he needs the help of Michael before he attains the Gabriel consciousness, and he is grateful for moral courage and might, for the active and specific arguments of Truth which pour into his thought denouncing evil's false claim to power and awakening his own vision to see as God sees and to reflect God's joy in His glorious creation and its changeless harmony. When this point is reached he is hearing the Gabriel message, which assures him of the omnipresence of Love, and he is no longer believing in conflict, but is at rest.

One day when a student of Christian Science was suffering from an attack of poisoning, he turned to the law of God to liberate him and earnestly applied what he understood of man's likeness to God and his consequent perfection. But he was tempted each time there was a new paroxysm of pain to begin all over again and give himself another treatment. Then he remembered that Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 419), "Your true course is to destroy the foe, and leave the field to God, Life, Truth, and Love, remembering that God and His ideas alone are real and harmonious." The student realized that although he had faithfully applied the specific laws of God which meant destruction to this foe, he was not leaving the field to Gód, but was constantly going back to renew the attack. We are not told to leave the field with a false sense of peace based on ignoring the human need, but the demand is that we "destroy the foe"—handle to its nothingness every phase of the evil which presents itself. We enter into our rest only when we have first done our work faithfully.

The Christian Scientist knew that his treatment had been thorough, and he knew it to be the Word of God, which is omnipotent; therefore he determined to keep the Sabbath, to abide at the altitude of spiritual vision which his prayer had attained, and to trust the Word to accomplish God's holy-purpose. He promised himself that he would not bow to the egotism of mortal mind by believing it was necessary constantly to repeat the attack against its lie. In a very few moments his healing was complete. He had remembered to keep the Sabbath—to rest in the consciousness of man's spiritual perfection.

One of the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal tells us how safe we are when we dwell in this haven of spiritual consciousness(No. 33):