Service FROM THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR          . . . Must not service in its broader meaning be the outcome of a scientific and demonstrable understanding of God and how we can truly serve Him? Saul of Tarsus relentlessly persecuted the Christians, honestly believing he was doing God service; yet suddenly, when on the road to Damascus, he realized, through the spiritual illumination which he experienced, that rendering God service lay in completely forsaking his former course. And thus at that very moment did he choose whom he would serve. Saul solved for himself the very question he later propounded in his famous inquiry to the Romans: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? . . . Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."          Now in Jesus' experience, how did he render this service which he urged upon his followers? By doing the will of the Father, divine Principle, through his ministry of healing and redemption. By works, by actual demonstration, by overcoming every phase of human bondage or limitation, whether it was the raising of the widow's son or feeding the multitude, he proved always and without a single exception, in the words of Mrs. Eddy, that "divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494). All through his ministry he emphasized the necessity of proving that all phases of human discord are destroyed by facing them with an unshaking and complete realization of man's mastery over them through spiritual understanding. Yet he clearly discerned and taught that his work was in all humility that of the disciple or servant of divine Principle, the one healer of all our diseases, declaring that it is the Father that doeth the works. Time and again he illustrated this fundamental fact; when, for instance, as a sign of true humility he washed his disciples' feet, and was impelled to say, as recorded in the gospel according to John: "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him."          Thus do we see that we have been inclined to associate the idea of meniality improperly with the term servant. The servant,—one who serves, in fact,—is obviously every one who follows and obeys Principle, by rendering true service, by translating good words into good deeds, by serving the one master, the divine Mind. In the exact ratio in which he becomes in truth a good servant to this master, by following His commands, does he in turn prove his mastery over the suggestions of materiality, of the false argument of life or substance in matter. Of the mastery shown by Jesus, Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 52): "His master was Spirit; their master was matter. He served God; they served mammon. His affections were pure; theirs were carnal." And on page 26 of the same book we read: "Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man."          Jesus perceived that in order to perform this mission of service to mankind every one must first prove his mastery over the arguments of material sense in his own consciousness, that his ability to cast the mote out of his brother's eye would be measured by his success in casting the beam out of his own eye. For this service, which is again being accomplished through Christian Science, is the outcome of one's own life and of one's own purification. The teacher of mathematics cannot impart to his students any more concerning its fundamental truths than he understands and has already proved for himself. This is equally true in the teaching and practice of Christian Science. It is only when we commence to appreciate this vision of the Christ, which Christian Science presents and applies with mathematical certainty, that we shall be enabled to render true service. In the words of a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (p. 116):— Happy the man, who knows His Master to obey; Whose life of care and labor flows, Where God points out the way. He riseth to his task, Soon as the word is giv'n; Nor waits, nor doth a question ask, When orders come from Heav'n.   "Service" The Christian Science Monitor, November 19, 1919

 

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