MRS. EDDY writes on page 263 of Science and Health, "When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works, he will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven." To work "only as God works" is a rather startling requirement to most individuals, who generally identify themselves as human beings, working not "as God works," but as persons engaged in human activities—business, housework, schoolwork.
Mrs. Eddy further tells us in Miscellany (p. 242), "You can never demonstrate spirituality until you declare yourself to be immortal and understand that you are so." A few lines farther on she continues, "Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration." And she adds with unmistakable clarity, "By this I do not mean that mortals are the children of God,—far from it."
The first requirement in working "only as God works" and in ceasing to grope in the dark is proper self-identification. Then should we not ask ourselves: Am I working from the standpoint of a human person, even a good human person?
It is axiomatic that a stream rises no higher than its source. Then our stream of experience, or life, rises no higher than our sense of self. If we contemplate existence from the point of view of a mortal, we cannot be free from mortality's limitations.
Our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, did not hesitate to acknowledge, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). His sense of self allowed no mortal origin. He made it clear, however, that when he declared, "I and my Father are one," he was not referring to a mortal sense of "I." This distinction is seen in his reply to one who mistook his goodness to be personal and addressed him as "good Master" (Matt. 19:16). Jesus replied, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." He eschewed any false sense of himself as mortal, either good or bad, and turned the ignorant viewpoint of goodness in matter to behold goodness in God.
It was the Master's demonstration of spiritual oneness, or unity, with God which permitted his works to take on the character of God's work. God's work is far different from the common concept of the work of a mortal. However, there are many distinguishing characteristics of God's work which, when demonstrated, permeate the work we behold as our own as well as that of others. Some of these qualities are completeness, immediacy, satisfaction, restfulness.
The present completeness of God's work is a fixed fact. Acknowledging this truth and understanding it permit the fundamental fact to be more clearly evident in our experience and in our human work. The mortal limitations of time drop away from our accomplishments, and our abilities are instantly available. The immediate accomplishment of our work is possible because all real work, God's work, is already perfectly accomplished. Christ Jesus' spiritual outlook, stemming from his conscious oneness with God, demonstrated the immediate effectiveness of working from this standpoint.
Mrs. Eddy says in "Unity of Good" (p. 11), "Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities." That he not only did not require a time process, but did not even require a thought process is not really so miraculous when we realize that it does not take time to accomplish what is already omnipresent. The time sense is present or absent in proportion to one's thought of self as mortal or spiritual.
When we work from the standpoint that selfhood originates and exists in Spirit, our work becomes less strenuous; we are rested, not fatigued, by it, and it is unlabored. Certainly the right kind of activity is truly restful. In fact, it is effortless. If work is not effortless to us, this is not due to the difficulty or magnitude of the work but to the lack of perfection in our standpoint. Inspiration is truly effortless, and this quality characterizes work that is begun from a standpoint other than human selfhood.
The following experience of a businessman who is a Christian Scientist furnishes a practical illustration of these truths. He was called upon by his company to take a specially prepared graduate level course at a large university. A portion of the work involved theory and practice in an aspect of the subject in which he had had no training in earlier undergraduate work and no experience in later years.
When the professor began his presentation, the student felt as if he were groping in the dark. As he frantically attempted to follow the theory and at the same time take notes, he realized the utter futility of mere human concentration. Aware that a higher standpoint of thought was the answer, he ceased the frustrating note-taking and, laying down the pencil, realized that working "only as God works" he in reality thought from the standpoint of spiritual consciousness, not from the standpoint of human intellect.
Calm in this conviction, he found that the concepts advanced by the professor were quite simple to comprehend instead of being difficult, which the professor himself declared them to be, and easy to retain. The student found that he was abreast of every concept that was expressed in support of the difficult theory being discussed. Notes were unnecessary because the explanation was so clear.
On an examination a week later, he received the highest possible grade for this portion of the course and a note of commendation from the professor as well. The Christian Scientist recognized that the result had come not from any human ability he possessed. It was because he had raised his standpoint of thought above the mortal to the spiritual idea of God that the work at hand was effortlessly and competently accomplished.
Real satisfaction is the result of working "only as God works." This is indicated in the first chapter of Genesis, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Therefore, working "only as God works," we must be satisfied with our work, and it must be good. Indeed, its goodness is the satisfaction. "Man is the noblest work of God," states a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 51). In the highest sense, man is himself the very work of God. As we realize this we can prove that it is as impossible for us to be separated from the right kind of work as it is to be separated from God.
