Performance ELLA W. HOAG, CSD          Emerson, in his essay on "Worship," writes: "The only path of escape in all the worlds of God is performance. You must do your work before you shall be released." He, like many another noble thinker, longed to help mankind to see that there is a work which each one must perform; that no one need imagine he can slip along through the years, accomplishing nothing himself, or supposing that if any work fall to his share someone else can do it for him.          Many earnest men and women have glimpsed the truth that performance is required of everyone; but just what was the nature of each one's work, or how mankind was to be awakened to the necessity of meeting this demand, seemed to be something quite beyond their ken. The most they seemed able to do was to state the mere fact, and plead that others might see and accept it. That there is surely work to be done, almost everyone finally has acknowledged. That the responsibility has rested with each individual to do his share has been something from which humanity has cried out to be delivered. Since the human sense is inherently lazy, and is always longing for ease and rest, it argues for freedom from effort. It does not realize that there is no such unhappiness and dissatisfaction as results from an attempted do-nothing existence, — from sloth and its resultant stupidity and mental squalor. It has become proverbial that to be idle is to be correspondingly miserable and wretched.          In this, as in all else, Christian Science comes with its illuminating explanation. It not only explains what man's work is, but also the manner in which it is to be accomplished; and it, too, emphasizes the necessity of every man performing his own part. It unites with Paul in declaring that each one must work out his own salvation; and it also agrees that it is God which worketh in us "both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Many Christians have failed to understand how to reconcile these statements, and as a consequence have swung to one of two extremes: either they have attempted to make themselves good, or they have cast aside all responsibility and decided that, if God was to work in them, He would have to do it without any effort on their part. This view they have felt was supported by such statements as we find in the Psalms: "I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me;" and as the Apostle Paul, in writing to the saints in Philippi, says, "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."          The question therefore arises, How is the individual to do his work, since performance evidently belongs primarily to God? This is answered in Christian Science by teaching each and every one how to "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." It shows that since God is infinite perfect Mind and man is His idea, man's work is to be God-governed, to prove this unity at all times, under all circumstances; in other words, he must prove himself to be the image and likeness of perfect divine Mind.          Then, the work of every individual is to prove divine Mind's government of him in every thought, word, and deed. It is, then, plain to be seen that no one else can do this work for him; but he must finally become entirely responsible for his own thinking and proving that "it is God which worketh" in him "both to will and to do of his good pleasure." No one else can ratify, for that individual, this union between him and God. It must be done through his own acceptance of and obedience to the Mind of Christ; it must be accomplished by his own thinking and his own use of the thoughts God gives him.          Here we see that each one must finally think out each of his own problems under divine Mind's guidance. We can aid one another on the way to this final goal, but no one can do the thinking for another. We may point out the way for another, — may even work out an occasional problem, as an encouragement and proof that the way is possible of demonstration; but, as Mrs. Eddy says of Jesus in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 18), "He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility." In other words, each one must at some time prove for himself his unity with God, divine Mind, and must finally learn to recognize, accept, obey, and use every least thought of that Mind.          One definition of performance is, "To carry through to the end;" and, surely, each individual must ultimately "carry through to the end" every life-problem, must carry it through to the annihilation of every belief in a mind or in an existence apart from God. Now, this is a glorious privilege, a grand and noble opportunity to perform such wonders as human eye has never yet seen; and it may be attended with joy and triumph all the way, if the inevitableness of the work is recognized, and the performance of it undertaken with the joyous understanding that it is God "that performeth all things for me." Then, after all is said, we have only to let the Mind of Christ reign in us! This is the performance demanded of each and every one.          To be sure, in order to accomplish this we shall have many a wrestling time with false beliefs; but what a joy even such struggles will become when we begin to realize that each one is on the way out of evil, and is hastening the day of the complete assimilation of all good. Also, that always — all the way — we have with us our great and glorious Father-Mother, God, who "worketh in us," willing and doing of "his good pleasure." Oh, what a blessed unity! Who would not hasten to prove it by carrying through to the end every performance necessary to the overcoming of every belief in anything apart from infinite good! What joy to realize the truth of our Leader's statement on page 7 of "No and Yes," "God has appointed for Christian Scientists high tasks, and will not release them from the strict performance of each one of them"!   "Performance" by Ella W. Hoag, CSD The Christian Science Journal, December, 1922

 

| Home | Library |

Copyright © 1996-2011 CSEC