Article April 3, 1976 Issue

Goodness: What Is Its Origin?

IDA K. SHAKESPEARE

Some years ago I was speaking very appreciatively of a church member who expressed great kindness and goodness. My young companion, a new student of Christian Science, was in complete agreement, but after a while she drew attention to Christ Jesus' answer when he was addressed as "good Master." Jesus said, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God."^{Matt. 19:16,17;} At first this seemed a rebuke to appreciation of human goodness, but on further consideration I realized that on the contrary Jesus' words heighten this appreciation.

A friend, a fellow Christian Scientist, a practitioner, or a stranger may give joy, comfort, help, or great enlightenment to us. We feel much gratitude and loving appreciation. Good becomes more precious and lasting, however, as we realize it to be an expression of the true, individual nature of man, the reflection of God, and therefore not subject to the changing whims of personal sense.

In identifying personal sense as capable of supplying any form of good to us we are identifying ourselves as subject to the manifold claims of discordant human relationships, disillusionments, misplaced loyalties, loss, and a host of other misery-making circumstances. This is often hard to realize while we are responding to a very attractive or warm or brilliant personality. But if we consistently pray to know the individual, spiritual nature of man and the good that is of God, we will not find ourselves entangled, deceived, or hurt by personal relationships.

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