Article January 26, 1899 Issue

The Quality of Mercy

BY W. P. McKENZIE

"Become compassionate," said Jesus, "as your Father in heaven is compassionate." "He shall have judgment without mercy who has shown no mercy," declared James. In Christian Science we are set free completely from one thing, that is, judging others; we are set free to love our brother. If there be a wrong it is God's to avenge and vindicate the right. Man's way is to take revenge and make the wrong greater. Resentment seems inseparable from human judgment; and such judgment implies the superiority of the judge above the culprit, such as was assumed by Caiaphas, who rent his clothes in pride of his sanctity and separateness from the Christ whom he called a blasphemer. Human judgment is the life and core of Pharisaism. It directs the gaze ever outward to the defects of others, and compares therewith the excellencies of the imagined self. But there is no tenderness possible, but rather hardness of heart, bitter injustice, selfishness, unruly will power, a life of lying, hypocrisy, acting. How can such escape punishment when their own acts against others react upon themselves?

But mercy rejoices against judgment. Mercy sets up one standard, not the self, but God. The merciful man sees how far he is from the compassion of his heavenly Father, and is humble; he seeks to bring others and himself to the right knowledge of God, and so is loving. It is in the very nature of things that the "merciful shall obtain mercy."

Having the human self for standard means gravitation hellward until Pharisaism is purged by retribution. Through making God All-in-all, the heart is melted, man becomes merciful, and finds heaven on earth.

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