Is our surrender to complacency helping to keep the world asleep in materialism? In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy warns, "Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours." Then she adds, "Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth."Science and Health, p. 95.
The significance of those statements to humanity is immense, but their impact is practical only to the degree that the message brings active individual response. Merely theoretical agreement won't bring the needed spiritual awakening; the illusions of material sense are dispelled only by putting Truth into practice. Christian Science shows us how we can do this. And we always learn valuable lessons from the healing of inharmony that results when we apply the rules of Truth correctly.
One of the things we learn from our endeavors to heal is that we don't earn the blessing of divine Mind because of the length of time we've been called Christian Scientists. We shouldn't be uncertain because we're "new," nor should we be complacent because we're "old hands." Attainment has to come as a result of our individual living of this Science. It is our demonstration of spiritual sonship with God that determines how far and how fast we progress. And we are able to heal, to bring harmony to mortal existence, as we progressively strive to express God's nature in our thought and actions.
