One Holy Purpose ELLA W. HOAG, CSD          Men have always known that without a definite purpose to commence with nothing of value can be achieved. Unless governed by some well-defined aim, all effort becomes more or less haphazard and endeavor falls to the ground, fruitless, unprofitable. Notwithstanding this generally accepted truism, how many men and women apparently fritter away their days in uselessness, accomplishing little if anything that is truly worthy, that is really helpful to themselves or others.          Now a considerable portion of mankind has revolted against such aimless living and has striven in a multitude of ways to originate and lay hold of purposes which would so occupy thought and attention that inaction and idleness, with their deplorable lack of proper results, might be done away. Individually as well as collectively men have been reaching out after purposes which, when followed, would make them better relatives, friends, neighbors, citizens. Inasmuch as these purposes have included some measure of desire to bless all, they have tended towards general advancement.          Try, however, as earnestly as men might to follow and encourage others to follow the highest aims they could grasp, they have still been so frequently confronted with serious obstacles in carrying out their best desires that their hearts have often failed them; their endeavors have faltered, and sometimes have entirely ceased. And why? Because their activities have been largely based upon belief in their own personal ability, and therefore these aims have included too much selfishness to bring holy results. The fact is, men have not understood how to have their purposes definitely associated with God.          Christian Science, however, emphasizes the truth that it is only as we start with God and stay with God that we can ever gain correct results in any direction. It shows very plainly that to attempt anything as of our own apart from Him and His guidance is to undertake that which must inevitably terminate in disaster. Indeed, it is to attempt the scientifically impossible! Nothing can truly prosper which is not in and of the infinitude of God, good. Then to find a right purpose we must certainly look to God for it, since He is the one and only originator of all good.          In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 506) our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, explains that we must trust God with our purposes just as we are to trust Him with all things else. She writes, "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear." Here then is the truth about all purpose: that it originates in God, Spirit; that it continues under His direct control until it comes forth ready to perform its holy work, still under His government.          Could there be anything more comforting, more reassuring, than that all true purpose belongs to God? What a quietus to every fear that one might perchance fail to attain a correct one! Since all purpose originates with God, it must therefore always be available; must always be perfect; must be completely desirable; must carry with it the assurance of success, which always belongs to the power of whatever pertains to good. And Christian Scientists have proved all this to be true in numberless instances! While the ordinary thinker has been searching hither and yon to find some aim which he would like to make his own, — experimenting first with one, then with another, but finding none faultless or completely satisfying — the Christian Scientist has gone directly to his divine Principle, where he has found the truth about all purpose. Christian Scientists know, therefore, that God's one purpose for man is that man shall reflect Him — shall be His image and likeness. They also trust God's promise, "I have purposed it, I will also do it." With God's purpose for man thus revealed, it is easy to see that man's only true purpose can never depart therefrom. In other words man's purpose must be to reflect God and Him only, — to be what God made him.          This one holy purpose, clung to, immediately begins to embrace every lesser aim. It commences to mold and fashion every least desire until it takes on the form of the divine purpose. Whatever one may be called upon to do, whatever the occupation upon which one may enter, with the one holy purpose to be the image of God, Spirit, which the Father-Mother God intends him to be, held continually and adoringly in thought, every word and deed will be ennobled. All things whatsoever we do will thus be done to the glory of God. Every thought, word, and deed will prove that God does indeed open "the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear"! What peace untold! What blessed security for all endeavor!   "One Holy Purpose" by Ella W. Hoag, CSD Christian Science Sentinel, October 4, 1924

 

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