"Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God." Mary Baker Eddy writes these illuminating words as the concluding lines of the chapter entitled "Footsteps of Truth" in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 254). The perceptive thought of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science made her well aware of the feeling of strangeness that besets humanity, wandering among the mists of false beliefs, and with these loving words she seeks to guide and welcome all to a higher sense of their true status.
Is someone feeling lonely, unsettled, suffering from a sense of bleakness and exclusion or from the cold and repelling aspects of a loveless world? It is possible, then, for one to turn to these tender words, "Stranger, thou art the guest of God," and to enter through the door of spiritual understanding into his true home, into a better sense of activity and fulfillment. In the household of God we are enfolded in the warmth of divine Love and tenderly cared for.
A guest has both privileges and responsibilities. He feels a duty to the one who has invited him and to the group in which he finds himself. He responds eagerly to the wishes of his host; he tries to find the good in others and to draw it out for the enjoyment of all. He submits to a certain discipline of thought and behavior which has as its goal the achievement of a happy and harmonious experience.
We are, in reality, all the guests of God and created to share His eternal goodness. This should be remembered when someone appears selfish, or trying, or seems to be a hindrance. Even if we must first call him stranger because to our sense he appears to be so, we must know that when we see him in the light of divine Love, we shall welcome him with joy as a fellow guest, worthy of the highest hospitality.
We have before us in the New Testament one who presented himself as a perfect guest at all times and in all circumstances. Jesus, we are told, was a guest in the house of Mary and Martha, where he shared with them his rich treasure of Truth and Love. Later, there in Bethany, their brother Lazarus was raised to life from the bondage of a belief in death. Jesus was also a guest in Simon's house, where his loving forgiveness of the woman scorned as a sinner has given a perfect example of true understanding and of real hospitality. He went to Peter's house and raised Peter's wife's mother to health and activity. In all these instances the power of Jesus lay not in the temporal occasion, but in his conviction that he was "the guest of God"' and that those he encountered shared with him this same status as God's perfect sons.
Mrs. Eddy declares (Science and Health, pp.476,477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." Who would not welcome as a guest one who could behold the perfect man? Yet we are all bidden to take part in this activity, for Jesus directed (Matt. 5: 48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Perhaps we feel that we cannot yet behold the perfect man or add anything of value to any occasion or situation because of a sense of frustration, inferiority, or failure. But reconsider the circumstance from the point of view of being a "guest of God." Is not the first thought of a host to bring out the talents and abilities of those present so that all may enjoy them? He alone, perhaps, knows the special abilities of each guest, and a talent will find its expression under his wise guidance. Even though at the moment one cannot perform brilliantly, warm and loving appreciation of others is a talent also and may be equally valuable and memorable.
Some may be thinking: "I have no sense of being a guest. I am a wanderer without funds, resources, employment. I am too ill to think of associating with others. I am too debased to be desired by them as a fellow guest." Let such false arguments be silenced with the gentle reminder, "Stranger, thou art the guest of God."
The comfort of considering oneself in this way was revealed to the writer in a time of need and seeming desolation. She turned to the textbook of Christian Science for an uplifting thought and found there Mrs. Eddy's loving statement of man's true status as "the guest of God." For weeks the thought of being God's guest filled her thought, together with a recognition of companionship with all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful Mind, and these thoughts unfolded in ways that brought to her much joyful activity.
Latent talents came to light, bringing her interesting and remunerative work. Opportunities to travel were presented in unexpected ways, and she shared bountiful hospitality in various parts of the world.
Some years later she found herself the guest of a friend in a charming home in one of the world's great cities, but because of extensive traveling, she was without funds or the immediate prospect of getting them. For several days she was worried and unresponsive to her host and the other guests. One morning, reviewing the situation in desperation, she remembered whose guest she really was, "the guest of God," and her awakened thought flowered into action.
It occurred to her that the city in which she stayed was rich in history and beauties of which she had some special knowledge through research done several months before. As her host and the other guests were newcomers to the locality, it seemed that it would be gracious to share her knowledge with them. Worry and foreboding cast aside, she entered with great enthusiasm into an exploration of the place and its treasures, and the others joined her with great pleasure.
Several days later she received a telegram offering her a most unusual position in another part of the country. Means were at once provided to make the journey and to enter into another phase of Love's rich provision of opportunity and development.
In this activity many were blessed in finding themselves endowed with undreamed-of talents which gained national recognition and which brought them needed livelihood. People of many nationalities worked together with the greatest love and consideration for one another's abilities, a fact that caused much favorable comment among the many visitors. They could not know that the high level of accomplishment and behavior was sustained each day by the pervading sense of each being a "guest of God," the recipient and expression of His constant outpouring love and wisdom.
This beautiful experience proved again that one should be alert to his true relationship to God. There should be no repining or contemplation of seemingly distressing conditions. We read on page 538 of Science and Health, "Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate of understanding to note the proper guests." It is our part to reflect this wisdom and through the gate of spiritual understanding to join "the proper guests" in the Father's household and to help others in their pilgrimage to it and to their glorious status as the guests of God.
