The history of Job, a wealthy man, recorded in the Old Testament has occupied the thought of students of the Bible throughout the centuries. The story relates that Satan asked permission of God to test Job's loyalty to the Almighty by causing him to lose all his possessions and by bringing death to all his sons. Patiently Job endured the loss.
Then, the story reads, Satan received permission to put him to a greater test. Job was stricken with a loathsome disease which made him an outcast from his fellow men. The subsequent history of this man shows that three friends visited him to mourn with him. When Job desired to die, these friends told him that he must be suffering from some hidden past sin which he had committed. But Job insisted that he knew of no great sin, and, unconvinced of guilt by the arguments of his three friends, he yearned in sincere desire to come face to face with God.
There followed a period of communion with the Almighty, in which God was revealed to Job as all-powerful and all-knowing. Convinced of God's great love and care for His creation, he cried out (42:5), "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee." Then Job's prosperity was restored to him.
Christian Science, the Comforter promised by Jesus, teaches men how to be patient in tribulation. Jesus said, referring to the Christ (Matt. 28:20), "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." In this statement the Master indicated that the power of the Christ is present and available to every individual to dispel all claims of error—sin, sickness, lack, and discord of every sort.
Christ gives to mankind the ability to be truly patient in all tribulation. The Christ enables one to endure pain, discouragement, trials, and all the buffetings of mortal mind, while demonstrating their nothingness. But more than this, the Christ, through Christian Science, assures us that none of these discords of human existence are sent by God, nor does He know of them.
God is pure, sinless Mind. Neither in Him nor in His creation is there an element of error. Christian Science reveals that all evil is without actual reality and that Christ destroys every false discordant claim as the individual patiently and persistently realizes man's eternal perfection as a son of God.
The belief that man is a mortal seems to be so embedded in human consciousness that it requires great patience on the part of the individual to overcome the errors of material sense. Patience as it is used here does not mean a folding of the hands. It calls for a vital, active, enlightened sense of man's spiritual being and for confident trust in the power of the Christ, Truth, as ever available and ever active to destroy every lie of material sense.
In saying that he rejoiced in tribulation, Paul did not mean that he welcomed tribulation for itself, but that it led to the cultivation of patience and hope and tested one's courage. And the Apostle Peter, who endured many tribulations, wrote (I Pet. 2:20), "For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God."
Neither time, nor space, nor any condition of mortality can dictate man's enslavement, since man is the son of God. The work of the Christian Scientist is to be persistent in loving, knowing, and proving the truth of man's spiritual nature rather than in yielding to the belief that error is real.
No one was ever helped by brooding over material or immoral conditions, accusing others of extending one's suffering, becoming fearful or discouraged because of the unyielding nature of error, by mourning over the loss of a loved one or a failure in business. Such mental stones of despair about one's neck sink one deeper into the sea of error.
We sometimes feel that others are impatient with us or are persecuting us. But are we patient with them? Do we try to understand them as they really are—the sons of God? Do we help them or hinder their progress?
The example of alert patience is a rebuke to impatience in another and heals it! Persistent knowing of man's true nature, faithful study, sincere prayer, and the resolution to follow the Christ in daily living will bring freedom from any mortal ill. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 454): "Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must 'have her perfect work.'"
A glimpse into the nature of the Master's success in overcoming error is seen in his experience in the garden of Gethsemane, just before the betrayal and crucifixion. Communing with God alone, while his disciples slept, he surrendered himself wholly to Spirit. "Not my will, but thine, be done," he said (Luke 22:42), thus acknowledging the supreme power of God to guide his every thought and act. Mrs. Eddy described Jesus' mental attitude of prayer in the definition of "Gethsemane" as follows (Science and Health, p. 586:) "Patient woe; the human yielding to the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining love."
Here is the answer to the question of what one should do when assailed by problems which seem unending. Surrender wholly to God; patiently, persistently, confidently look to Him for the revelation of one's spiritual sonship. Continue to love not material person but God and His perfect creation.
In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read (10:35, 36): "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." And our Leader says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 100): "The Christian Scientist loves man more because he loves God most. He understands this Principle,—Love. Who is sufficient for these things? Who remembers that patience, forgiveness, abiding faith, and affection, are the symptoms by which our Father indicates the different stages of man's recovery from sin and his entrance into Science?"
