We simplify our labors when we work in a direct line toward a right objective. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 457), "Christian Science is not an exception to the general rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct line." Mrs. Eddy labored in the direct line pointed out by Christ Jesus when he said (John 6:27), "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you."
Jesus gave us an example of the straight line of endeavor which leads to eternal freedom and joy. He lived a life of pure affection. He knew the reality of Spirit and the unreality of all that is evil, and his loyalty to the reality of the spiritual made him loving, and it made him mighty. The Master withdrew from error, not by evading it but by destroying it—proving its nothingness. He maintained his conscious unity with God and let the will of the Father work in him to interpret life in terms of spiritual harmony and sinlessness. These were direct methods of labor; they showed no wayward wandering in paths of personal sense.
The Master never let himself be tricked into a state of indifference toward a situation where the warmth of Love was welcome. Neither did he waste time trying to instruct those who were unready for what he had to impart. His integrity of motive made him wise in the design of his ministry, leading him to labor where he could do the most good. When sending the twelve on their first mission of preaching and healing, he advised them not to encumber themselves materially, but to take only what they needed. And he told them to shake from their feet the dust of those cities where they were not welcomed. Knowing the power of Love to assert its supremacy over the flesh, Jesus could well trust to the resistless law of God those who were not prepared to learn of the unreality of the material.
