A Great deal is said today about the pressures of modern life, and it certainly does seem as if the number of stresses were increasing for most people. These pressures appear to be social as well as economic, mental as well as physical. They include the pressure of duty as well as the pressure of work; the pressure of superior officers as well as the pressure of living up to the standards of friends and neighbors; the pressure of quantity as well as the pressure of time. Often the strain of these pressures is believed to lead to physiological pressures within the body.
In Christian Science these strains are seen to be part of the false belief of material living and are no part of reality. They spring from the belief that man is a material form subject to physical forces and conditions; that he is a human being striving in competition with others to become better and greater, yet always subject to frustration and disappointment. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes (p. 14), "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth."
Life is infinite, divine Spirit, eternally unfolding its own perfect being in multitudinous forms of beauty and goodness. Neither mortal life nor material conditions are true, nor are they part of divine Life, which is forever unfolding calmly and harmoniously, without struggle or urgency. Life, or Mind, is the infinite Ego, knowing only its all-presence and all-power, and man is the spiritual reflection of this infinite individuality. Man, as the reflection of God, is never conscious of strain or pressure, for his consciousness and individuality are the emanations of Life.
Man, then, does not have to combat strain or meet the so-called pressures of modern living as if they were true and established facts of being. He does not have to give up a material life and take up a spiritual one. In Christian Science we have to give up only our false beliefs of mortal life and material conditions and accept the truth of being, knowing that the divine Life is the Life of man now by reflection and that his Life divine is unfolding gently and naturally under the government of divine Mind.
It is not enough, however, for our healing and progress simply to state spiritual truths and leave them at that. They have to be put into practice and given proper application. Although man, as the reflection of God, is under no sense of pressure, we cannot ignore, or dismiss as of no account, the false beliefs that present themselves to us in the form of social and economic pressures. These false beliefs must be detected and denied; then they must be destroyed by replacing them with the Christlike qualities of orderliness, calmness, and equanimity. Man, the spiritual image and likeness of God, does not have to gain these qualities. They are his now by reflection.
In a certain sense we are always under pressure, but this pressure is spiritual, not material. It is the divine impulsion towards spirituality, the gentle influence of the Christ to yield the human to the divine at every point. Christ Jesus urged: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:29,30).
It is noteworthy that in all her writings, Mrs. Eddy refers to "pressure" only once. On page 451 of Science and Health she writes, "Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate." Christian Scientists must come out from all material beliefs, and their seeming strains and pressures, and gain the full understanding of the allness of God, Spirit, and of the unreality of matter and materiality.
The way to overcome any sense of pressure, then, is by means of the mental and the spiritual, not the material. Drugs do not really overcome this false sense, nor do they really heal. Any effect they may seem to have is only temporary, and then only in proportion to the faith placed in them. It is the thoughts of mortals which give drugs the power they seem to have. In reality as mindless matter they have no power. Spirit, Mind, is the only power, and we reflect this power in our experience as we spiritualize thought.
Man's work is to express Life, Truth, and Love, and the perception of this truth improves our human sense of work. We can feel no pressure in reflecting the divine qualities, and this is man's true and satisfying business. If we really understand that as the immortal idea of inexhaustible good, man has infinite capacity, we can never experience the pressure of unfinished work, the strain of limited time, or the frustration of inadequacy. Man never feels impoverishment, for he reflects the restful action of the divine Mind.
The standard of God and man is perfection. Man does not have to reach perfection, for he has never dropped below that standard, since his relationship to God remains forever unchanged. He is perfect and spiritual now, and forever retains his true identity and individuality as the child of God. If we demonstrate this, we shall never be under the pressure of having to maintain a false standard of living or be strained by having to affect artificial ideals or spurious values.
Man is idea, not matter. The image and likeness of God, Spirit, is not made up of material elements, such as blood, which mortal mind claims to govern. Man is the compound idea of Mind and includes all true, spiritual ideas, which circulate freely and harmoniously without obstruction or restriction. Divine Mind alone governs and controls every function of the real man gently and wisely and without urgency or pressure. Mortal mind, with all its suggestions, can never interfere with or interrupt man's harmonious being, for man is not corporeal but spiritual.
We need to be alert to see that we do not give reality to evil and that we do not become wrought-up and tense about the apparent wrongdoing of others. We must, in Jesus' words, cast the beam out of our own eye through the understanding of man's identity as the reflection of Spirit, and this includes reducing to the point of nothingness the offenses of others. Suppressed or expressed anger, irritation, impatience, annoyance, or resentment betrays not only a belief in evil but a lack of love and understanding and leads to a mounting sense of pressure.
In "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy says (p. 354), "A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God." In the degree that we understand and accept this fact and put on the yoke of Christ, all sense of pressure and tension will be dissipated, man will be known as free and reposed now, and God's government will be experienced on earth as it is in heaven.
