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By Root 624 0

some useful business or profession in which one should be happy and satisfied, doing good work and receiving a liberal compensation for it. Scientific prayer will put anyone into such a position if he does not already possess it, and then if he prays each day as he should, realizing true place, and claiming opportunities for service, his actual position, whatever it is, will be continually improving as time goes on. Of course this does not mean that one need necessarily “go out to business,” as it is called. The woman taking care of her household duties at home is just as useful a citizen as anyone in the land; and many people whose private incomes put them beyond the need of earning money, lead lives of the highest usefulness in developing literature and art, and in other activities. What is certain is that no one upon the Spiritual Basis will lead the life of an idler, however much money he may have.

One hears occasionally of curious cases of people who claim to be so spiritual that they do not feel called upon to earn their own living. Someone else, a relative, or friend, who is not too spiritual to go to work, is expected to keep them in idleness. But this attitude of mind speaks for itself. If your understanding of metaphysics is sufficient to enable you to dispense with ordinary work, you will find yourself automatically supplied, and in an independent and self-respecting manner, with a good living. This cannot possibly apply to people who are in debt or sponging upon others. If you really wish to try the experiment of “stepping out” upon the power of the Word, by all means do so; but be sure that your so doing is authentic. The only way to make this experiment in a genuine manner is to let it be “demonstrate or starve.” If you are secretly looking to someone else to come to the rescue, you are not really depending upon the Word. Every Scientific Christian is entitled to reasonable prosperity, which means enough to live on in decent comfort and reasonable security. Until you can demonstrate this genuinely by the power of the Word alone, you should use your treatment to find a position and to make it a success.

Jesus tells us in this section that by taking thought we cannot add one cubit to our stature. This is one more way of stating the great truth that he states in so many ways; namely, that we have to be born again. As long as you remain the man that you are, you cannot by merely taking thought be or do anything except what you are (because, of course, you always do what you are); you can only “get anywhere,” as they say, by becoming a different man, and this you can only do by getting some realization of the Presence of God.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

(Matthew VI)

In scientific prayer we usually work in the present tense. The whole idea of scientific prayer is to adjust one’s consciousness, and this must necessarily be done in the present—“Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation.” When a problem concerning your future presents itself to you—for example, suppose that you have to sit for an examination in six months’ time, or to take a voyage which you dread, perhaps next week—the right thing is to pray about it now, in the present tense. Do not wait until the time comes, but work on it now; that is, work on your own consciousness concerning it, and in the present tense. Do not try, as it were, to throw your treatment forward. This cannot be done successfully. The event may be a future one, but the very fact that you are thinking of it at all means that it is present in consciousness; and as the thought is a present one, it can and must be dealt with in the present tense. In the same way you can treat about past events, and you should do so if they still worry you, by treating about them in the present tense—because the thought of them is present. Treat for past and future events alike as though the incident were going on at the present moment. Remember that God