THE dawn of a new year is often referred to as the turning over of a new leaf in the book of human existence. Some people make it a practice at this season to examine their thoughts and aims and to resolve to improve themselves in the days ahead. In her dedicatory sermon in The Mother Church in 1895, Mary Baker Eddy writes (Pulpit and Press, p. 1), "A new year is a nursling, a babe of time, a prophecy and promise clad in white raiment, kissed— and encumbered with greetings—redolent with grief and gratitude." And a little further on she states, "Time past and time present, both, may pain us, but time improved is eloquent in God's praise."
It is evident from our Leader's statement that the Christian Scientist's new-year resolution may well be the improvement of his time—the dedication of every thought and deed to the glory of God. Such dedication must be based on fervent prayer and a constant devotion to be and to do good, to bring every thought and act into obedience to Christ, Truth. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 15): "We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We must 'pray without ceasing.'"
We learn in Christian Science that the cross which Christ Jesus carried throughout his ministry was not like the wooden cross which he carried to Calvary; that cross was only the symbol. The real cross was the world's hatred of Truth. Are we, like our Master, ready to take up the cross—to face the world's hatred of Spirit and its rejection of the Christ in daily living? Are we ready to face sin in ourselves and in others, and to face material modes of thinking and acting in ourselves and in others? Are we prepared to help eliminate evil? Do we desire to consecrate ourselves to good rather than to evil, to purity rather than to impurity, to consistency rather than to inconsistency, to Spirit rather than to matter?
As we face these thought-provoking questions at the dawn of a new year, the suggestion may come that although we should like to take a firm stand on the side of Truth, we do not feel equal to the task of resisting and overcoming sin and discord in ourselves and in others. But here Christian Science intervenes and shows us how we can take up the cross of mortality and go forward, confident of success in our unselfed endeavors.
In her dedicatory sermon referred to earlier in this editorial, Mrs. Eddy says that every individual in his true being is as important as duodecillions in his ability to be and do good. Each one of God's ideas reflects the infinite All; and because His ideas live in Spirit, all good is available to each idea. Our work is to acknowledge and steadfastly insist upon the fact of man's indestructible and eternal unity with the source of all good. Let us resolve to do this!
The purification and spiritualization of thought and desire enable us to carry out our resolution to take up the cross and demonstrate our dominion over the false beliefs and discords of mortality. In this connection, the expression "let us resolve" has an additional meaning to the student of Christian Science. It is his duty to reduce or resolve all material things into their mortal elements—false beliefs—and then to eliminate these false beliefs with the truths of Christian Science.
When Moses was summoned by God to lead his people out of slavery, he hesitated and tried to evade the task. Then, through several experiences, his faith in God was strengthened. In one of these, wisdom told Moses to cast down his rod, and when he did so, it became a serpent. As Moses fled from the serpent in fear, wisdom called him back and told him to handle it, to pick it up by the tail. When he did so, the serpent became a rod in his hand. This experience shows how, through the understanding of Truth, we can resolve every discordant earthly experience or condition into its mortal elements—false beliefs, material sense testimony, mortal illusion. Then by holding fast to the spiritual truths of existence, we can prove the nothingness of false beliefs.
The material evidence of a sick person, a world in turmoil, a church involved in a problem, a business in distress, a family disrupted, all must be resolved into their mortal elements—mere false beliefs regarding the individual, family, nation, church, and business. Then, by holding fast to the spiritual realities, we replace the false concepts with the ideas of Soul, and harmony results.
The consistent Christian Scientist lives the truth which he professes. He follows Christ, Truth, in daily living. He resolves each day to take up the cross and prove the unreality of the many claims of error which seem real to false material sense. He is determined to bring "into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (II Cor. 10:5), and thus to demonstrate his dominion over all things as a son of God.
