Editorial April 25, 1925 Issue

Consistency

Albert F. Gilmore

The old proverb, "Consistency, thou art a jewel," like so many time-honored axioms, contains a truth which is universal, and is never out of date. As a jewel is something rare, beautiful, and valuable, likewise consistency is something worthy to be cherished, even to be highly prized.

Christian Scientists, perhaps above all others, know the value of consistency and the important place it fills as a factor of spiritual progress. They know, for example, that to strive to attain spiritually while holding to the reality of the seeming universe of matter, with all its false laws and erroneous beliefs, is the very antithesis of consistency. An exemplification of this rare jewel, consistency, is set forth by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 254), where she says, "Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can 'run, and not be weary; ... walk, and not faint,' who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement." Here, manifestly, our Leader has made clear the necessity of conforming our lives to our pretensions. If we watch and pray with faith and understanding, we should to some extent be able to throw off the enslaving beliefs of the flesh. Is not the degree in which we succeed a good criterion by which to determine our earnestness and our consistency,—that is, the logic of our position? We should make the results of our efforts the proof that what we adhere to as true is possible of demonstration. That is to say, we should show results in keeping with our claims. Thus we would avoid the condition about which James wrote, "If any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."

Frequently the seeker for release from some discordant condition through spiritual means by his very attitude delays, if he does not, through his utter lack of consistency, altogether defeat, the realization of what he seeks. Holding to some type of belief as real,—attaching to it some one of the names mortal mind has invented for its manifold ills, holding to it as "my" condition,—he makes it real to himself by the very intensity and assurance of his thought. In other words, he is recognizing as real something from which he desires to be freed because it is unreal. How inconsistent this attitude is Mrs. Eddy sets forth with her usual clarity, beginning on page 394 of Science and Health. "The sick," she says, "unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it. They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and eternal likeness to God." Here our Leader has pointed out the incongruity in the thought of those who, by making a verity of a discordant condition of which they would be free, argue against themselves, thus delaying if not preventing their recovery. At the same time she has furnished the complete remedy,— making plain the necessity of taking an unequivocal stand for man's unchanging perfection.

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