Christ Jesus made a point of warning us not to try to reap the fruits of our work before we are ready to complete it. In the parable of the wheat and tares he had the householder say, "Let both grow together until the harvest."1
In working out our human problems, there is a time in each case to demand, and expect, a clear-cut solution. There is a time when we are ready to take a step that we know is in accord with divine Principle and to be confident that it has the support of God, who is that Principle. There is a time to say to one who appears to be ill, "Rise and walk," and to be certain that he can and will respond. There is a time when we can face a physical condition that according to general human thought would require stitches, or bonesetting, or dental surgery and handle it through prayer alone. There is a time when we will be ready to go beyond the water's edge and walk safely forward, sustained by our understanding of the power of infinite Mind. These are harvest times.
One could say that our human experience plows the ground of our consciousness, making it ready to receive the seed of Truth. Mary Baker Eddy speaks of this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She says: "The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life in divine Science."2
A point that is difficult for many to understand is that although the basis and substance of Christian Science healing work is the truth of perfect God and perfect man, we are not ready to begin working at that point without preparation, and the preparation may be humanly laborious. In fact, students of Christian Science, in their eagerness to come to the point where evil or error needs no longer to be dealt with, often search the writings of Mrs. Eddy to find some statement that justifies their immediately taking the absolute position. And having found such a statement, the temptation is to disregard all statements that instruct us to work and wait patiently until we are ready for the harvest.
A favorite reference is this from a reply Mrs. Eddy gave in the Christian Science Sentinel to a question on whether or not one should consider himself an immortal idea of divine Mind: "You can never demonstrate spirituality until you declare yourself to be immortal and understand that you are so. Christian Science is absolute; it is neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it; it is at this point and must be practised therefrom."3
So that we may reach the point where we actually do declare and understand our immortal selfhood, Mrs. Eddy has given us a complete textbook. The entire book, Science and Health, needs to be studied if we are to do more than mouth words and appear to ourselves to be declaring Truth. If evil has any power, it is the power we give it to dissuade us from the work the textbook plainly gives us to do. If we do understand Christ, Truth, we follow faithfully the textbook's instructions, such as this: "Christians must take up arms against error at home and abroad. They must grapple with sin in themselves and in others, and continue this warfare until they have finished their course."4
If we understand, we see that this statement and the preceding one in no way contradict each other. The grappling we do leads us to the perfect view of ourselves. If we love the perfection of our true being, we declare it conscientiously and consistently, and we love the work we are given to do to reach the point where our declarations are made with genuine understanding.
If we really know we are ideas of Mind, we can experience no more uncertainty, no more limitation, no more fear or discord. If we understand that we are immortal ideas of divine Life, we can say to the sick, without further study or work, "Rise and walk," and that is what they will do. If we have denied the material senses with sufficient conviction, and if we have seen clearly enough the substance that is our true identity where the senses say we are identified by matter bones and teeth, we are ready to tackle bone and tooth problems with assurance. If we have overcome our belief in material gravitation to the point where we are no longer impressed by earth's downward pull, we can walk on the water.
In each case the wheat and tares—the truths of God and man and the false beliefs of material sense—grow side by side. Until we can distinguish clearly which is which, we have work to do. As we actively expose our own errors of belief and replace them with spiritual ideas from Mind, we grow in understanding, and our declarations become less assertive and more truly affirmative. When we are ready to move into another area of demonstration, we know it.
There are areas in our human living that challenge us to greater and greater consecration before we are fully ready to declare and understand and demonstrate the perfect manhood that is ours in divine Science. Insurance policies, wills, automobile safety belts, even automobiles themselves, or elevators, weather reports, food sources, clocks, material structures of any kind, will all disappear as we grow out of material sense into the consciousness of spiritual reality. But there is work to do first, and our work will accomplish more if we assess the situation honestly.
