Jesus' parable of the talents points to a fact in Christian Science which greatly blesses those who give proper heed to it. It is this: that every department of our experience, as it now seems humanly to be, is capable of improvement by means wide open to us through this Science.
Without attempting to say all that was in the Master's thought as he spoke the words of the parable, we can see unmistakably certain things that were there. He was aware of the nature of God, infinite good, and of the nature of man, of every man, as the perfect and unlimited expression of this good. At the same time, he observed with understandable compassion how unmindful those about him were of these facts. They were like heirs to a great estate who had not yet learned of it and who were consequently living in poverty. In this parable he was obviously seeking to alert mankind —his contemporaries and all who were to follow, including ourselves—to the wealth which is really ours.
He undoubtedly saw that the one thing that can keep us from the glad consciousness and experience of this wealth is disbelief in it—failure to apprehend it in its true nature. Hence we have his strong words for the one who was indulging this state of thought— the servant who had received one talent and done nothing with it. Jesus represents the lord of the servants as saying to him (Matt. 25:26), "Thou wicked and slothful servant."
Obviously, this servant represents the type of thought which has not yet taken in the fact that the good which has appeared to human sense is always only a hint of the presence of more—of good which actually is not restricted at all. It is a type of thought which is eventually discredited by its own falsity, but which, until corrected, tends to blot out even the sense of good that one has, as Jesus indicated in these further words of the lord of the servants to the same servant: "Take therefore the talent from him."
But consider his words for the other servants, those who had had a more enlightened sense of the good which they had received and had accordingly managed to increase it: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
The practical meaning of all this for us is unmistakable in the light of Christian Science. It is, clearly, that whatever of good has appeared for us at any time in the past, or is now appearing, is only an intimation of the greater good which is at hand and demonstrable for us even in the hour in which we consider it, and in all succeeding hours. We do not, therefore, have to say in the words of the one-talent servant to his master, "Thou art an hard man." We know that the One we serve, the divine Principle which governs us, which makes in reality all the harmonious conditions of our life, is not hard and restrictive, but utterly and infinitely beneficent; and we know that Christian Science provides us with the means of proving this grand fact, and thus of having still larger evidence of good in every area of our experience.
Both the assurance of the fact itself and the guidance needed for proving it are given us in full measure by the beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and her other books. She writes, for example, in Science and Health (p.6): "God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows. The talents He gives we must improve." In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p.183) she states plainly that "whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection." And in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," she summarizes in a single sentence the method of proving these statements. She writes (p.160), "To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science."
In none of these passages or elsewhere in her writings is there a hint that any circumstance whatever is really able to interrupt our progress in the proof of these things. Our task is simply to see that we do not believe there is any such circumstance, and to think and act accordingly.
What, then, are some of the talents God gives us?
There is the talent of health. He gives it to us because it is in His nature to have it, and because we are one with Him, expressing His nature. In reality, it is health which cannot be improved or need improvement, because it is already perfect. It is also changeless—untouched forever by uncertainty or anxiety, completely secure in its own nature, incapable of being anything other than unhampered and unresisted divine harmony. That is the real nature of the only health there is—the health of God and of each one of us as His reflection.
The view which mankind seems to have of health is, of course, different—limited, and decidedly subject to change for better or worse, like the human mind's picture of everything. But Mrs. Eddy challenges this unhappy view with the most definite scientific assurances. She shows the true nature of health; and she shows, moreover, that to know it in its true nature is to dispel the false sense of it and have evidence of the true. Hence, even as we see it humanly, health is not something that must go its own way, regardless, or more or less regardless, of what we may do about it. It is not something that must eventually deteriorate and disappear. It is something over which, through Science, we can have complete dominion. It is a talent we must and can improve.
Can this be said of everyone? Can it be said, for example, of the men and women going into the armed services? The plain answer of Science is "Yes"—without qualification. Under any circumstances which these men and women may meet, their health can not only remain unimpaired but be bettered. How? Through advancing understanding of what it really is. Through the knowledge that they are not material but spiritual; that they do not live in a material body, but in infinite Mind, in Soul. By thus seeing that health is in the very nature of things—in the nature of God, the only presence, and of themselves as His reflection—they can come back with a better sense of health, stronger and freer physically and mentally, than when they went away; and many have done this.
Is the same essential thing true for everyone, in every period of human life as it appears to be: the period in which small children are considered to be subject to certain diseases, the period when they seem to be subject to certain hazards because they are maturing, the period of young manhood and young womanhood, of so-called middle life, or any of the later periods of individual human experience? The plain answer of Science is that there is no exception to the rule—that for everyone at any time what has seemed the normal standard of health can be maintained, or regained if need be, and also can be exceeded. In any period as much of good is available as in any other, and at any point one's sense of health is capable of becoming more like the real health.
If after earnest endeavor one seeking better health has not yet attained it, he need not be dismayed. He can still take comfort and assurance from the fact that real health is his God-given right; that only a fuller spiritual understanding is required to prove that this is so, and that the requisite understanding is both available and natural for him.
What, then, of inspiration? Students of Christian Science are not unfamiliar with this talent. As we have studied a Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly, given a treatment, or gone about our other affairs, we have experienced the spontaneous flow of good and true thoughts— thoughts expressive of the nature of God, and therefore from God. Not only has the experience been a joy in itself, not only has it brought us the feeling of having our feet on the rock, and the consequent happy assurance of good, but it has unfailingly done something to the human circumstances with which we were concerned. Such inspiration has healed the sick for whom we were working, brought further facility and effectiveness into the handling of our ordinary business, whatever it was, and given us other evidence of good.
How are we to regard such inspiration? As something exceptional, something that can come and go, something that is less available at one time than another? Are we to believe that some glorious degree of it which we experienced in the past is no longer possible for us? Or that the still fuller degree of it which we have hoped and prayed for is somehow impossible?
To have any such view of our spiritually enlightened moments would be to mistake their true character and meaning. Inspiration, Christian Science clearly shows us, is not really something exceptional for ourselves or anyone else. It is not an excited state of human thought, or anything necessarily limited, or anything that can wear itself out or fluctuate. What we have seen humanly of true inspiration has been in its degree a recognition of reality, and also the evidence of reality. It has been the appearing in some measure of the true nature of Mind, and of our own true selfhood. Even at best it has been but a hint of the perfect, ceaselessly unfolding, and ever-unlimited inspiration of Mind and of man.
Any suggestion, therefore, that as good a degree of inspiration as we have known in the past, or even a better degree, is not available for us now is preposterous—a suggestion to be rebuked and rejected forthwith upon the authority of truth, the truth being that the only inspiration there is, is perfect and constant, the inspiration of infinite divine Mind, which each of us perfectly reflects. The inspiration which we have experienced humanly is thus but a sip from a fountain that is ever full and running over. It is another talent which we must and can improve.
Science makes it unmistakable that no human or material condition limits the inspiration available for us. Neither youth nor age, neither health nor disease, neither poverty nor prosperity, nor any other circumstance, has really the power to stand in the way of the unfoldment of true inspiration for us. Only some contrary and utterly unfounded belief could make it seem to do so. As we dispose of the belief through spiritual understanding, we prove the divine fact; and the proof can, naturally, be continuous and progressive.
The proofs of the constant availability of divine inspiration have often been very striking. The prophet Elijah was once so "low in his mind," as people say, so lacking in inspiration, that he fled into a wilderness and prayed to die. Yet, in a matter of days, because he was then praying differently, he was divinely fed and led to hear the still small voice, and was moving right on into the greatest of all his great proofs of the presence and power of God. If there was a low point in Jesus' experience, it must have been on the cross when he cried (Matt. 27:46), "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Yet on the third day, his inspiration had overcome death.
In our own time, students of Christian Science have continually seen that, on the very heels of discouragement and depression, there can come for them not only a somewhat improved sense of inspiration but the brightest sense of it they have ever known. We see why this is. It is because the real thing in its fullness, the unlimited inspiration of Mind and of man, is never an inch away in space, or a minute away in time. It is always at the very door of our consciousness as it seems humanly to be, ready to flood in upon us as we open the door. If the door at times seems hard to open, we need not be troubled. We can always open it. We can always see, to put the point in a still better way, that there is not even a door between us and the Mind which has the perfect inspiration. It is our Mind.
If one were looking for a single word for all the talents he has, he could hardly find a better one than "expression." Actually, that is what each one of us not only has, but is— expression of all the qualities, all the functions, of infinite Mind. Such is the talent each of us has as an idea of God. The practical importance of this revelation of Christian Science hardly needs to be urged. For it is plain even in the ordinary human view that the lowest common denominator of all trouble is just restricted expression. Someone seems unable to express what he needs to express—health, or inspiration, or something else. And that is the trouble.
We are entitled to remember that it is only mortal mind which presents any such picture. Actually, any appearance of restricted expression is completely untrue. It is animal magnetism, mesmeric illusion, and is to be handled as such, with the vigor and assurance of Science. We can see in any such instance that the trouble is not entrenched in ourselves, for the simple reason that we in our real being are perfect and unlimited expression—the divine Mind's own infinite expression of itself. We can see therefore that the trouble, for all its appearance of reality and perhaps of great stubbornness, has only the flimsy and utterly illusory character of false belief, which naturally fades out with its apparently supporting evidences for one who is recognizing the truth.
The improved expression we are seeking may not always come in the way we had thought of as most desirable. It will come in the best way, as we seek it earnestly in accordance with Jesus' admonition (Matt. 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." What obviously is required for all progressive demonstration in Science is progressive recognition of the nature of God, and of our own nature as the expression of His righteousness. Through this recognition the things which humanly are needed are "added unto" us, as Jesus said. In other words, through improved recognition of the nature of God we have the improved expression of His nature which under the circumstances is desirable.
It is so with respect to any faculty, any characteristic of true being. It is so with vision. Any difficulty about seeing, either mentally or physically, is only failure to recognize as one's own the perfect perception of infinite Mind. As one takes in what sight really is, an inevitable attribute of divine intelligence, and learns that its perfect expression is the very nature of his being, the false and limited sense of sight disappears for him.
It is so with hearing. It is so with feeling. If in either of these respects one's experience is not satisfactory, his need is only to understand better the spiritual and perfect character of the function concerned, that it is an unalterable function of the one infinite Mind, directly expressed in him. As he apprehends this great fact, as he turns radically from the false education which has made him believe otherwise, and recognizes that he is spiritual and therefore not subject to any impairment as the expression of God, he finds the false sense going out, and the true appearing.
So with strength, so with usefulness, so with supply, with one's relationships, with wisdom, love, or anything truly desirable. An inadequate sense of any of them is only failure to see what the real thing is, and to see that the real thing is adequate, is ever present, and ever perfectly expressed in one's own being. As one does this the needed evidence of the divine fact appears. The talent is improved, and one enters proportionally "into the joy of [the] lord."
