CHRISTIAN virtues are pillars of strength in an unstable world. The heart embodying Christlike qualities of thought draws close to God, receives power from above, and endurance and might from the infinite resources of Love.
Among the transitional qualities of thought which enable us to walk with peace and poise through all earthly experiences are patience and resignation. Only through unending devotion to good and a complete yielding to the will of God can peace and stability be maintained as we journey heavenward. Patience and resignation enable us to walk securely through the furnace of affliction, as well as the passing joys of earth, and to experience the mental and moral regeneration which transforms us and lifts us from earth to heaven.
True patience is not patience with error. It is the unending pouring in of good, the continuing labor to fill with spiritual treasures empty vaults of human consciousness. True patience tolerates no error, but works untiringly for the unfolding of good in human experience.
True resignation is not resignation to evil, to an unknown individual, or to collective human destiny; it is not passive, but is an active yielding to God and the conforming of human experience to His will. Resignation to good and to good alone, whatever its form in our experience, assures us of true progress. Such complete surrender to the will of God is not the dissolution of man's identity and power. Rather is it a joyous yielding to God's purpose of eternal good, the revelation of man's true and perfect being as God's beloved child. Thus is man's true nature and eternal power brought to light.
Mrs. Eddy in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" writes (p. 167), "Spirit teaches us to resign what we are not and to understand what we are in the unity of Spirit—in that Love which is faithful, an ever-present help in trouble, which never deserts us."
Patience and resignation are essential elements of healing. The resignation, or surrender in thought, of all the obstructing elements of earth is a step of progress which always precedes a great influx of spiritual power. The patient pouring in of good which accompanies and supports such right activity is indeed an earnest of the spiritual strength upon which all true healing rests.
A Christian Science practitioner was called upon to heal what seemed to be a persistent physical disorder. After much earnest prayer the practitioner realized that the patient had accepted in consciousness a false concept of patience and resignation. The individual was resigned to his problem, and as a consequence was expressing what he believed to be a Christian virtue in patiently enduring what seemed to him to be a very real evil!
During the days following this uncovering of the error, the practitioner endeavored to see more clearly the wondrous perfection of man and the good which is forever his. He knew that man is forever one with the divine order, accepting and enjoying only the life, power, goodness, and joy which God has given him. Knowing that patience with evil is only a mockery of the true sense of patience, the practitioner endeavored to behold, right where the error seemed to be, a perfect sense of patience as an unending consecration to the purposes of good.
As these truths were poured into consciousness, a mental and moral chemicalization took place. A more spiritual sense of patience, dawning in the patient's thought, brought stability, peace, and trust in good. A higher sense of resignation brought a great freedom from a false sense of responsibility and a joyous expectancy of good. These qualities continued to unfold into a marvelous sense of peace, joy, and power, and the complete physical healing followed shortly thereafter.
Christ Jesus, in his statements and his deeds, never conceded power to matter or to mortal mind. Violence, aggression, and disease were spurned by the Way-shower. With marvelous patience and a complete surrender of every element of earth, he placed his trust in eternal power. He understood and used spiritual laws, and he foresaw and foretold the triumph of God-inspired consciousness in such statements as this: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5). Loving ideas lead men heavenward; error blindly pushes toward destruction. Love patiently pours forth good, supporting and sustaining the healing power of Christian Science and the eternal verities of Christian thought. Spiritual qualities possess true stability and will endure forever.
In the vast mental chemicalization which underlies the upheavals of today the compulsion of the spiritual demands which lead men heavenward is increasingly felt. The individual and the world must pass through a mental and moral chemicalization before the gates of heaven are reached, a spiritual state of consciousness attained. Even the transitional, or moral, states of thought must be purged until all elements of error are dissolved in Love and the purely spiritual emerges. In this mighty purging, patience and resignation bring to thought stability and an ability to endure. Surrender of destructive elements of thought breaks the dream of error while patience gently reveals the presence of perfection.
No individual can rise higher in the demonstration of Christian Science over a long course of years without an ever-unfolding expression of true patience and resignation in his own life. These qualities, sustained by the might of divine Love, bring a deep, settled peace and a joyous serenity to the ascending footsteps of human life. Mrs. Eddy writes in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (pp. 17, 18), "Patience and resignation are the pillars of peace that, like the sun beneath the horizon, cheer the heart susceptible of light with promised joy." Expressing these qualities in our lives, we shall ever include heavenly peace and an eternally unfolding awareness of promised joy.
