Editorial June 26, 1926 Issue

Motive and Activity

Ella W. Hoag

All men desire to express activity. They may not always be conscious of it; but to perform, to manifest ability and power, and thereby bring about certain accomplishment, is a foundational factor of all existence. Neither have they always been aware that they never express any activity without some sort of motive having preceded it. There is never a finger lifted, an eyelid moved, a step taken, that it is not actuated by some purpose, however slight or inconsequential such purpose may have seemed to be. Each word spoken, each deed consummated, each act performed, must inevitably have had some motive, either true or false, right or wrong, to bring it into evidence.

As men begin to see this, they awake to the necessity of having all activity rightly directed, if results are to be satisfactory. To this end mankind has searched and striven, studied and taught, often with but disappointing effect. And why? Because it has so largely failed to see not only the importance of a correct motive, if right activity is to follow, but also the way whereby motive may be made sufficiently exalted and pure to bring about perfectly satisfying results.

In "Christian Healing" (p. 7) Mrs. Eddy has written very positively of the need of having motives made perfect if actions are to measure up to the divine standard. There she says: "The Science of Christianity makes pure the fountain, in order to purify the stream. It begins in mind to heal the body, the same as it begins in motive to correct the act, and through which to judge of it." And she also says in the same paragraph, "It begins with motive, instead of act, where Jesus formed his estimate; and there correcting the motive, it corrects the act that results from the motive."

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