NEVER before have so many of the world's workers had so much time on their hands. During the past half century, the workweek in the more highly industrialized countries has been drastically shortened, and the workday has been notably cut down. Vacations have been lengthened, and retirement is offered, even enforced, at an earlier age than in previous times.
This process is continuing. There can be no doubt that with the increase of automation in farming and industry, men and women workers will have more and more free time at their disposal. Leisure is no longer the privilege of a small minority of wealthy people, but is enjoyed by multitudes, who in earlier times would have had to devote practically all their waking hours to hard labor.
How has this come about? The usual explanation is that modern science has produced laborsaving inventions and devices which have freed men from toil, that improved transportation and communications have greatly reduced the time once needed for tedious travel, and that a rising birth rate and a falling death rate have provided more people to do the world's work in less time.
Let us look beneath and beyond these superficial explanations. What gave rise to the new timesaving and laborsaving inventions and to the improved health and greater longevity which humans now enjoy? Was it not an increasing awareness of man's superiority to matter, as revealed in Christian Science? The liberating effect of Christian Science upon human thought has certainly had something to do with bringing about this enlarged freedom. In turning the thoughts of mankind to eternity instead of time, to infinity instead of space, and to spiritual power instead of material forces, Mrs. Eddy has accomplished much in enlarging the borders of human thinking, helping advancing thought to burst through the boundaries of human limitations to the point where men today find themselves released from much of the bondage of earlier generations.
There are encouraging indications too that men are learning to make better use of their leisure time. There is an upward trend in public taste and thinking which often goes unnoticed. More millions than ever before are devoting their increased leisure hours to wholesome sports and to artistic and literary pursuits. There is a trend away from the grossly material to intellectual and spiritual spheres of sparetime activity. And as human thought is directed into ever higher channels, men and women will be led more and more to seek satisfaction for their leisure hours in the only place where true satisfaction can be found—in spiritual thinking and right acting.
We are moving further and further away from the time-honored belief that man must live by the sweat of his brow. This curse was laid upon Adam, the carnal mind's supposed opposite of God's image, when he was banished from the Garden of Eden. The account is part of the allegory in the second and third chapters of Genesis. It is an allegory illustrating error's beliefs about man. It is no part of the true story of creation as related in the first chapter of Genesis.
Here we find nothing about man's being condemned to perpetual hard labor. On the contrary, this true account states that God created man and gave him dominion over all. Nothing is said in this account about man's being cursed or about his tilling the ground or about the necessity of his performing laborious work. All this is just a part of the fable that mortal mind has generated and perpetuated about man for untold centuries.
Does this mean, then, that men do not have to work? That they are to spend their lives in idleness as perpetual loafers? Certainly not. We remember the Bible warnings against idleness and sloth, and we recall the words of Mrs. Eddy, "If at present content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with it" (Science and Health, p. 240), and her statement in the Manual of The Mother Church, "Amusement or idleness is weariness" (Art. XVII, Sect. 1). So we shall be active even in our leisure time, remembering that God is omniactive Mind and that we are His reflection.
Our work is to progress in the exercising of superiority over matter, and we do this through our God-bestowed understanding of the truth of being. Men were never condemned to drudgery. They have a higher kind of work to do. And they are gradually freeing themselves from the supposed curse that was laid upon Adam, and they are entering more and more into their proper employment of glorifying God by bringing about the realization of His kingdom upon earth. They, therefore, are having more leisure and are making use of it to further God's work.
Thanks to Christian Science, we are gaining a new concept of work. We are learning that the right kind of work—mental and spiritual work—is always productive of health, satisfaction, and general well-being.
We are told in the Bible that Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a carpenter, and we assume that the boy Jesus learned Joseph's craft and worked hard at it. But he obviously did not consider carpentry his most important work, for when Mary and Joseph found him at the age of twelve in the temple discussing matters of great moment with the learned men of the nation, he replied to the parental reproofs by declaring that he was about his Father's—God's—business.
Even at that early age, he had a higher concept of work than other boys had. When he undertook his healing ministry nearly two decades later, he was able to demonstrate his lofty understanding of true work in many striking ways. When the lame man at the pool of Bethesda complained that he could not reach the supposedly healing waters in time and had no man to carry him, Jesus showed that no such physical labor was necessary. He did not pick the lame man up and carry him to the pool or call someone else to do so. He simply said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk" (John 5:8), and the man was healed.
Even after his crucifixion, Jesus continued his work, his spiritual work. Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (p. 44), "His three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time."
The most important revision of the concept of work that has been put forward in recent centuries—perhaps in all time—is that which Mrs. Eddy has outlined in her writings. It is the concept of work as the holy activity of reflecting divine Mind's complete perfection in all our affairs, whatever they may be. This attitude permeates all the daily business of a Christian Scientist. His vigorous, joyous attitude as he goes about his work should be infectious. His fellow workers may thus be led by his example to see their own activity as not mere tedious labor but the glorified fulfillment of God's plan for each individual.
To one who sees this truth, work itself is leisure, if by leisure is meant freedom from any sense of pressure, compulsion, or exhausting labor. Time away from everyday human employment is enriched by a new understanding of this freedom from toil.
Leisure is often devoted to what we call recreation. It is truly recreation in the highest sense if it is devoted to renewing our understanding of the fullness and beauty of God's creation as reflected in His own children.
Whoever grasps the truth of being as revealed in Christian Science finds that he always has work to do and the leisure to do it.
