Christ Jesus showed by parable the true sense of spiritual advancement and its counterfeit of self-aggrandizement. He said (Luke 14:8-10): "When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room. . . . But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher."
The lessons of this parable enter into every detail of our human experience. The Christlike attitude toward life has no personal ambition for self-aggrandizement; it relies upon the unfoldment of God's plan. Whatever his occupation, whether his duties are of so-called high or low degree, the student of Christian Science is not tempted by claims of envy, pride, or fear, which would, if entertained, self-exalt him to a position for which he is unprepared.
The quietness born of self-immolation naturally hears the voice of Christ, Truth, bidding one to arise from the restrictive, fearful, sickly beliefs and effects born of mortal mind. "Friend, go up higher" is the Christly message of every Christian Science treatment, which turns our mental gaze from destructiveness, sin, disease, and suffering to the ever-presence and power of God. It gives us the assurance of our present perfection as the likeness of God; the assurance that because God's creation is complete and perfect, we cannot actually express any imperfection; the assurance that it is safe for us to turn wholeheartedly from sense testimony and to accept implicitly the fact of spiritual perfection, health, holiness.
