EACH individual has a reason for existing, and a study of Christian Science makes plain the spiritual work awaiting him. Life becomes more meaningful as the student acquaints himself with God through the light which Science throws upon Bible pages. This light enables one to recognize his indissoluble relationship to God; it enables him to learn to serve God in his thinking, and joyously to provide the world with daily proofs of the practical nature of his understanding of God and his usefulness to Him.
During the human experience of almost everyone, there comes a time when questions such as the following invade consciousness: What is my purpose in life? Why am I here? Do I have a reason for existing? Is my activity of any use? For many people these questions go unanswered for years while they search fruitlessly for the truth of their being. But there is a positive answer to be found in Christian Science.
Mrs. Eddy makes this thought-provoking statement in her book Miscellany (p. 165): "Goodness never fails to receive its reward, for goodness makes life a blessing. As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing."
Self-examination is a basic aspect of the study of Christian Science, and the student who is experiencing difficulty in solving his problems should examine his own thinking to see if he is ruminating on the thought that his present struggle for existence is useless and of no real value either to himself or to others. In some cases this aggressive mental suggestion may be promptly discerned; in others, it may be subtly hidden away in a secret corner of consciousness. But in either case, well-defined or hidden, it is a deterrent to healing and must be rooted out. Even after being thus enlightened, the individual may still feel, owing to the mesmeric influence of the carnal mind, that the effort required to eliminate this negative thinking is useless or impossible of attainment.
Such thoughts revolve around self. An individual may be humanly unselfish in his deeds but mentally selfish as a result of thought which centers only on mortality— on his particular lack of physical well-being or on other inharmonies in his experience. This attitude is due to ignorance of God and man, to a lack of spiritual enlightenment, a lack of spiritual vision, and can be corrected by a consecrated study of the Bible along with the writings of Mrs. Eddy.
Such a study is essential in the developing of spiritual sense. This development is a gradual but continuous and necessary process. It emphasizes the need for unselfed love, which serves as an antidote for selfishness in whatever guise it may appear; in fact, unselfed love appears naturally as the result of a spiritually enlightened consciousness. The resultant spiritual vision, which is a divine sense of Love, is an ability to behold the universe, including man, as God created it—a universe necessarily spiritual and perfect at all times regardless of what the five material senses may be saying to the contrary.
Materiality, with its attendant limitations and confusion, is viewed as false, illusive, untrue, because it has no place in God, good. The sincere student will find that a study which serves to develop his spiritual sense will bring useful and happy thoughts into his human experience to replace and nullify the frustrated sense of uselessness. This spiritual activity leads to true wisdom, which, when found, reveals his divine purpose and reason for existing.
In Job we read (32:8), "There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." This "spirit in man" is the ever-operative Christ, the spiritual nature inherent in mankind, which insists on spiritual progress in individual lives. What greater mission could anyone have than to prove the utility of the Christly "spirit in man"?
Jesus gave us this promise as recorded in John (8:51): "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." In order to keep the sayings of Jesus, we need first to become acquainted with them. Every word is based on love for humanity, and mankind has great work to do to pattern human existence on the divine. Each individual must eventually assume his part in this reformatory mission, and this again is his reason for existing.
In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy states (p. 291), "We know that all will be changed 'in the twinkling of an eye,' when the last trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call in the growth of Christian character."
How can we learn to yield "to each lesser call in the growth of Christian character"? The answer again is that a study of the Bible and of our Leader's writings reveals thought-treasures which are priceless. They enable us to express courage when defeat seems inevitable; they enable us to express patience and calm where anger and resentment might appear justifiable; they enable us to express joy when sorrow would hold sway over consciousness. Spiritual strength can be developed through the application of spiritual reality to the minutiae of daily life. This action is a must if one is to be a successful Christian Scientist and fulfill to the utmost his reason for existing.
Paul expressed his thought of the individual's unfinished work in these words (I Cor. 13:3): "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." The Greek word here translated "charity" may also be translated "love." Students of Christian Science have an important work to do in order to express this love. The human interpretation and expression of charity are not sufficient to open the doors to the kingdom of heaven. The need is rather for the expression of divine Love in thought and the application of divine Love to human situations which will include the goodness expressed humanly and which will make life purposeful, replacing discord with harmony.
If God is good and God is All, then in reality there is no evil. What appears as evil in our lives may be looked upon as a warning to us to gain a better understanding of God and to pray more diligently. Whatever requires us to consecrate ourselves more to God is not an evil but a blessing. As we fulfill this requirement, we are blessed; action contrariwise constitutes rebellion, which only makes the struggle more severe.
There is, however, no need to be afraid. The need is only to awaken to the demand for spiritual growth; to realize that this is a divine requirement, a work which must be done sooner or later. In this process one learns to turn away from the material picture, with its hopelessness, to the contemplation of spiritual reality. Study and the consequent spiritual refreshment will continually unfold this reality in consciousness, and peace will follow.
In the proportion that spiritual growth takes place in consciousness, the Scientist is "able to impart truth, health, and happiness" to others. This type of thinking becomes a "rock of salvation" in his own experience, and he begins to realize his reason for existing and why he must be willing to do the work which God has for him to do.
