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?
