A New Year

From the January 1927 issue of the Christian Science Journal by


In one of her earlier poems Mrs. Eddy has written (Poems, p. 28):

“Father of every age,
Of every rolling sphere,
Help us to write a deathless page
Of truth, this dawning year!”

And could there be a holier desire than this for each and every Christian Scientist at the beginning of this year of our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty-seven?

There is something always deeply impressive about the commencement of a new year. Most men stop at such a time to consider, at least temporarily, what life is holding for them individually and as a whole. No human heart can fail to be moved by the appeal which is made by so definitely new an era as the beginning of a new year. With the contemplation of a new year there immediately comes a sense of an ability to drop the old and lay hold of that which is new, of an opportunity to cancel old accounts and start afresh. It is as though one were given a chance to take a new lease of one’s existence; as though an occasion were being provided whereby one might make of the new something much more valuable than had appeared in the old.

In the Dedicatory Sermon found in “Pulpit and Press” (p. 1) Mrs. Eddy says, “A new year is a nursling, a babe of time, a prophecy and promise clad in white raiment, kissed— and encumbered with greetings— redolent with grief and gratitude.” Every new year, therefore, comes to mankind with glad hope and sweet assurance of good! It comes offering release from wrong and establishment of right; it offers a fresh, clean sheet on which it is each one’s individual privilege and responsibility to place only that which is worthy and beautiful, pure and holy, grand and powerful—a sheet on which each should write the truth and the truth alone. And what but Christian Science could make it possible for any one to fulfill so stupendous a purpose!

When in sacred prayer our beloved Leader appealed to our heavenly Father, asking His help that we might indite a page which should be eternal because of its unity with Truth, she spread out before us a marvelous vision of prospective good. Here she presented an opportunity which is transcendently glorious. Here is a way whereby past errors may be effaced, old debts canceled, old mistakes rectified, old false habits relinquished, old faults corrected, old sins renounced and blotted out. Nothing, however, but Christian Science understood and demonstrated can bring to one this ability to take a fresh, hopeful, and success-assuring start in the forward march of life, whatever the past may have claimed to be or to hold; and nothing short of writing “a deathless page of truth” can possibly erase all that has been evil, false, and unreal in each one’s experience.

And how is such a page to be written? First of all, it cannot even be begun without the Father’s aid. Unless the task be undertaken in the same spirit which Jesus knew and expressed when he declared, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” and “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works,” no right result can follow. Unless each one realizes that he can have no power for good except as he reflects it from God, divine Truth, he cannot even commence to write that page which shall never fade or be lost, but which shall stand forever a blessing to all who read.

Another important point to be remembered is that nothing is to be put on to the page but the truth. All must be written in accordance with Principle’s own laws and rules of harmony and heavenly rightness. And this demands an ever increasing understanding of both the letter and the spirit of Christian Science. It demands a willingness to take into the present the handling of every uncompleted experience of the past, until all that is mistaken is eliminated and only the true and the perfect remain. It also requires an eagerness to face new problems and a consecration which will keep at them until each is solved perfectly. Only thus can the new page be kept unsullied from mistake or failure.

As the Christian Scientist clearly recognizes these primal necessities, he will begin most joyfully to start out on his new year’s adventure. What beauty in the prospect! What happiness in the sense of renewed and renewing activity! With the past of evil minimized and the possibility of present good magnified, he feels that nothing can possibly hinder his steady progress in his prospective demonstration. He almost imagines he can already vision its completion! And it is well that his mental outlook be broad and far; that his attitude be full of hope and courage; that he know from the outset that all things are possible to him that believeth!

This stainless, deathless page which he is to write will be covered with Truth’s impressions as each law of Truth is understood and obeyed. Every word used, every deed recorded, must be the result of God-governed thinking. This right thinking must be held so allegiant to Truth that only that which is absolutely true can be entertained. With great patience every thought which challenges acceptance must be examined in Truth’s light, that only that which is right and good shall be given place.

What happiness to know that all through the earnest effort of the coming year not only will the aid of the Father always be at hand to enable the Christian Scientist to write many a perfect truth upon his page, but it will also show him how to annul through regret, repentance, and acceptance of good any least error which he may unwittingly, or even willfully, have previously expressed. The patient obedience to the will of God, which will enable him to demonstrate that Truth alone is real, will also wipe off every vestige of defilement from the pure white page of his endeavor. Then only that which is of Truth will remain to glorify his Father-Mother God, and prove his own unity therewith.

Oh, may our Leader’s precious prayer be answered this present year in the thoughts and lives of each and every Christian Scientist!




Print this page


Share via email


Send this as a text from your phone