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LAURA LOUISE GALSWORTHY
May it not be that often we try to deceive ourselves and others by endeavoring to assume a position we have not yet attained, talking from a metaphysical standpoint and with a courage we have not yet made our own? Here one may say: Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 264 of Science and Health, "We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being." Ah yes; we must act, not talk. What a wealth of meaning lies in the difference between those two words! When conditions all around us appear harmonious, and consciousness seems pervaded with a touch of sunlight, it is easy to fancy one's self on the mountain top compassionately ready to assist others to reach this lofty position, but should a testing time arrive and mental confusion and consequent physical discord assert themselves, then we need to pause and ask ourselves if we can stand by our declarations of Truth. The infinitude of God's law is the fact which renders this belief in any other law null and void and gives us the necessary courage with which to go forward steadily, consistently endeavoring to demonstrate the truth of being, not only in words but in deeds, even when the senses seem persistently to deny and oppose our efforts. The eternal demand on man is for purity of thought, the single eye with which to perceive God's idea and to be ever mentally on guard against the mortal claim of impurity and double-mindedness. What a bugle call to thought and consequently to the realization of God's eternal allness comes to us from the words in the first chapter of Revelation, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." How the mortal sense of time and finity is swept away by this grand declaration and the infinite wholeness and eternality of God's omnipresence and completeness is brought to light. Matter can set up no opposition, intervene with no obstruction, and occasion no action; for the perfection and operation of God's law in its ordered action is ever present and cannot be delayed, limited, or displaced. We can, therefore, if obedient to what we apprehend of Principle, rest in the knowledge of this perfect law and action. As there is no mortal mind to oppose or misdirect, we must endeavor with unfailing obedience to refuse to give way to the demands of the senses. To manifest true gratitude we must recognize the need of unswerving loyalty to Principle; and the joy of this demand obeyed, brings more clearly to our thought the fact that the true man is but the acting expression of God, perpetually His likeness, thus maintaining the perfect harmony and unity of the true idea. What an uplift and support this knowledge of our rightful and only true relationship to our heavenly Father is, and how grateful we are for the teaching of Christian Science, which exposes the counterfeit suggestions of mortal mind, and so reveals their impotence. In this new-found joy, it is inevitable that thought turns with simple humility and tenderest gratitude to the noble woman who discovered and founded Christian Science, and who through selfless love and purity won the victory over error, leaving the path clearly defined for all to follow. Our Leader gives a perpetual call to her followers to overcome fear and demonstrate in their lives the fruits of her teachings. We often hear it said, "Why should there be so much striving and struggling to be gone through, if good is the only reality?" and the answer must be, "If we do not know good as the only reality, we give the chief place in our thoughts to the supposed power of evil and so fail to demonstrate the spiritual fact." In our textbook we are patiently and lovingly shown on every page the allness of God and the nothingness of error, and yet mortal thought still clings tenaciously to old beliefs, constantly bringing forward experiences of the past to justify and establish the present suffering, when the great need is to yield up all belief in past, present, or future illusions for ever present spiritual fact. Sometimes we hear the remark, "Why am I suffering and so conscious of my body when all day I have been trying only to think rightly?" and this question needs the awakening reply, "To think rightly is to think ever away from self, and out and up to God." To possess our bodies with the truest sense of control is to turn away from the belief of a material body, and recognize only the embodiment of pure, joyous, and constructive thinking. With what positive authority and imperative command did Jesus rebuke and dismiss the error, and demand and call forth the perfect manifestation. Ever accompanying his wonderful works was a quiet humility and joyous gratitude to the Father, whose image and likeness he was so faithfully presenting. True gratitude ever carries with it the desire to give and radiate the joy which comes from the revelation of Truth as the consciousness which is the cause of our gratitude. Searching mental analysis is often necessary to discover and uncover the errors which would often pass unnoticed unless we are animated by the most sincere desire to eliminate all that is unlike God. This process of elimination does not promote self-absorption, morbid self-contemplation, or condemnation, but lets in the light and sweetness of pure thinking, thoughts of love and tenderness and joy, which are the beacon lights illumining the path along the straight and narrow way we all must tread. Every demonstration of Truth we make in the overcoming of mental or physical inharmony must bring to us a clearer glimpse of our true, spiritual birthright and call to our memory those beautiful words in the Bible, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Are we proving our gratitude by constructive, uplifting thinking when we allow some quick and thoughtless criticism or unloving word to escape unchallenged and unrecognized? Is joy expressed by the constant recital of our sufferings and the consequent self-pity and depression which accompany this recital? Years of the repetition of error neither constitute nor refute a fact, nor can we hope to attain a positive and harmonious state of consciousness when we allow such weak, negative thinking to obscure our perception of Truth. Another suggestion put forward to discourage us is the subtle question, "Why do some attain so easily while others seem to make such slow progress?" This question recalls a well merited rebuke from the Master to one of his disciples when in reply to a question he said, "What is that to thee? follow thou me." It is certain that to attain we must individually strive to — and we can — follow in the footsteps of Jesus the Christ and learn to rejoice wherever and whenever we recognize progress for another or ourselves; for is not the truest joy and gratitude experienced in sharing with others thoughts about our Father-Mother God? With heartfelt gratitude for every gleam of spiritual light, may that verse of our Leader's hymn (Poems, p. 13), sing itself in our hearts: — To Thine, for Thee; An offering pure of Love, whereto God leadeth me.
Christian Science Sentinel, May 29, 1920 |
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