One of the first demands upon the student of Christian Science, is that for absolute honesty. Honest he must be, in his mental attitude toward that divine Mind to which he looks for help, and toward himself in the analysis which uncovers to his own discernment the thoughts and actions which are inconsistent with his highest sense of right. Honesty means much more than a lack of conscious misrepresentation, more than a lack of deceit. It is a positive quality of thought, from which spring all fair and gracious things in human relationships, and to search for it, and cherish it, is the duty placed upon all Christians. If an individual be imbued with honesty of purpose, it will govern his scrutiny of himself in such manner that the wavering, misty impulses of the human mind will be dispersed, and a growing clearness of thought will manifest itself in fairness and candor to all mankind. Upright judgments and just procedures are the outcome of honesty of purpose, and only such pure desire, at the springs of individual thinking, can lead to genuine truthfulness in outward manifestation.

If an individual have not natural honesty of purpose, he cannot know himself, nor make himself clearly known to others. His intention may at all times be honest, and he may consider himself strictly upright in all his dealings, but until uncertainty and confusion of thought are corrected by clearer views of his own desires, impulses, and emotions, he is not working from the mental basis which insures absolute honesty. Daily self-analysis, under the teaching of the Christian Science text-book, brings to light startling inconsistencies in the human disposition, and only that heart which can face unflinchingly the evil nature of all thoughts which are at variance with the Christ-mind, can grow out of the accumulated mental, moral, and physical ills of an ordinary human nature. Only that man who is deeply, purely honest, can endure the action of Christian Science in his life, for the reason that the activity of right thinking exposes mercilessly the weakness and untruth of wrong thinking; and nothing less than a supreme love for righteousness can stand the daily sifting, weighing, and testing of thought, motive, and speech involved in establishing individual scientific Christianity.

Every student of Christian Science may well ask himself, "Am I honest? Do I clearly desire the supremacy of truth above all else?" And in searching for a fair answer he may often clear away much that has been obstructing or oppressing him. To see clearly one's own desire and motive, is a fit preparation for a right beginning. About this matter John Ruskin has said, in "The Crown of Wild Olive,"—

"Everybody in this room has been taught to pray daily. "Thy kingdom come.' Now, if we hear a man swear in the streets, we think it very wrong, and say he 'takes God's name in vain.' But there's a twenty times worse way of taking His name in vain, than that. It is to ask God for what we don't want. He doesn't like that sort of prayer. If you don't want a thing, don't ask for it; such asking is the worst mockery of your King you can mock him with; the soldiers striking him on the head with the reed was nothing to that. If you do not wish for his kingdom, don't pray for it. But if you do, you must do more than pray for it; you must work for it. And to work for it you must know what it is; we have all prayed for it many a day without thinking."

As the individual grows to understand more clearly the basic nature of honesty, and the demand follows that this love for honesty shall pierce every condition of thought which would evade the exalted scrutiny of the Christ-ideal, it becomes profitable to analyze some of the phases of human thought and habit which are commonly called honest. Until an individual has awakened to understand actual honesty of purpose, based upon, and included within, divine Principle, he is subject more or less to confusion in his sense of what constitutes honesty in personal relationships. But so soon as he discovers, through Christian Science, the direct truth concerning man's relation to God, and man's obligations to man, he enters upon a new field of action, and begins to build upon a broader and deeper sense of honesty in all his ways.

It goes without saying that the man who desires to be honest. who says what he thinks, is far nearer the kingdom, and of much more benefit to his fellow-men, than the mortal who purposely or carelessly hides what he thinks under any guise of diplomacy or deceit. Yet that honest man has much to learn concerning the varying phases of thought which would seek to use his native honesty, that they might find unbridled expression. Any hastily formed judgment, any criticism, any false report, in fact, any passing thought, may be honest in its nature, but wherein lies any profit in its expression, if it be but a passing human mood, and not a truth? A quarrel may claim to be honest; the betrayal of sacred trust may claim an honest motive; anger and greed and malice may make honest exhibitions of themselves; in fact, ignorance always calls itself honest, and any evil or mistaken belief of the human mind, while it holds sway, can "honestly" express itself, if the meaning of honesty be thus limited to frankness of speech. Since good is honestly manifested in goodness, and the sense of truth is honestly manifested in truthfulness, so evil poses as "honesty" even while manifested in evil thoughts and evil deeds. And it is this misuse of honest tendencies against which the truth cries out in loving protest.

The dictionaries set forth honesty and honor as being synonyms, and both words are commonly used as defining, in a general way, very similar qualities of thought. There is found an exalted impersonal meaning attached to each word, which reveals the popular and common use of them to be often limited, careless, or perverted. There is, however, a distinction; honesty being, perhaps, an abstract loyalty to truth, or right; and honor, a more individual sense of what is right. Webster gives to honor this distinguishing individual quality when he defines it as being "A nice sense of what is right, just, and true, with course of life correspondent thereto."

The Century Dictionary makes the distinction, "Honesty belongs to the absolute principle of right; honor, on the other hand, belongs to accepted standards of what is due to others and to one's self.

In the book "Synonyms and Antonyms" by James C. Fernald, it is stated, "Honor is a lofty honesty that scorns fraud or wrong as base and unworthy of itself. Honor rises far above thought of the motto that 'honesty is the best policy.' "

The Century Dictionary also gives one meaning of the word honest to be, "Open; undisguised; boldly or frankly showing purpose, character, or quality, whether good or bad."

True honesty is always morally sensitive to the rights, the needs, the feelings of others. Superficial honesty is sometimes heedless and headlong in its expressions. True honesty knows the right thing to say and do, in all clear and honest ways of healing and peace, while the bluntness and impertinence which often masquerade as honesty, may blunder helplessly. True honesty, like charity, seeks "not her own;" it stands clothed in such fineness of feeling that it moves, a heavenly surgeon, among the children of men, binding up the wounds which poor human nature ignorantly inflicts upon itself; while so-called honesty may be selfish in its nature, mangling others in its attempt to gratify its own desire for freedom of speech. A "lofty honesty" scourges from the temple all such qualities as policy diplomacy, and cowardice, and yet in its divine wisdom and compassion it may ofttimes withhold the so-called "honest" expression of that which is unworthy, unnecessary, or unkind. Honesty possesses the merit of not concealing, within one's own nature, errors which should be corrected, yet it may accomplish such correction quietly, and alone, before the divine Mercy-seat, in such ways as will not disturb the neighbor's peace. Honesty, confined to the narrow sense of speaking what one thinks at the moment, may be made a vehicle for all the ill-nature of the human disposition, while truth, stately in its honesty, never lends its dignity and beauty to anything less than the purposes of God. In fine, true honesty makes no mistakes, for it is the grace of God springing in the human heart; while the mere impulse of honesty is so easily handled by the suggestions of self, that truth must needs guide and temper honesty, to make it a trustworthy servant for Christliness.

As the lower standards of honesty are discarded, and thought reaches to the sunlit heights of Christ-like candor and truth, much of the false politeness and propriety characterizing society life is seen to be unnecessary, unwholesome, and untrue; it involves selfishness and insincerity. Business relations, also, are hampered by subterfuge and intrigue, and are sorely in need of cleansing. But, while Christian Science is exposing this false fabric, the Christian Scientist must not forget that back of this "refuge of lies" there stands the truth of Christian courtesy and unselfish fellowship. In abandoning the false and superficial methods and mannerisms, one must seek to put in their place the charity, the gentleness, the "sweetness and light" of divine Love, else one has no cup of cold water to offer his fainting fellow-man. The spirit of Emerson's statement. "The highest compact we can make with our fellow is, Let there be truth between us two forevermore," is not necessarily limited to a severe and brutal frankness, but rather, holds within its ideals such honor, such genuineness, and such tenderness, that it enfolds all helpfulness and service. To call attention to another's faults may be honest, but it is not the whole of honesty. A higher sense of truth will uphold the brother's virtues, and all his possibilities for good as well, and thus fling wide the gates of thought, that the spirit of encouragement, and peace, and healing, may enter and abide.

Christian Science sets its face against all manifestations evil. Consistency is the better part of any profession, and that student who is learning to restrain the passing expression of his moods and opinions, until careful analysis proves whether they be in accord with honor and truth, is also learning to restrain, in the same way, the passing expression of pain and disease. It may seem honest to describe in detail the physical symptoms of disease, but the Christian Science text-book is teaching the world why it is neither wise nor profitable. Fear may seek honest expression, yet any well-poised man will endeavor to control it, that others may not become alarmed. It may seem honest to betray the presence of physical irritation by the symptom of coughing, yet the Christian Scientist will try to restrain such evidence, not only that the human will which thus asserts itself may he silenced by the "Peace, be still" of the Divine will, but because of an honorable regard for the rights of others; for it is well understood that the clamor of a careless cough, in a public assembly, may become an unhappy intrusion upon others, while the unselfish effort to subdue the personal temptation to such indulgence, makes for the general comfort and peace. Many are the instances in daily experience where fidelity to Principle restrains the natural impulses of mortal mind, yet no incident can stand out with more simplicity and grandeur than that given in sacred history of the Shunammite woman who rode to meet Elisha. To human evidence her child lay dead, but her hope was fixed upon the man of God, and as she journeyed to meet him, no fear, no doubt, no sorrow, found utterance True to her hope, her steadfast purpose answered to all inquiries, "It is well." Thus the Christian to-day should be able always to say. "It is well," for he trusts in God who is omnipotent and omnipresent, and the highest honesty demands allegiance to God, in contradiction to material evidences. The Shunammite woman honored her God, and while a lower sense of honor might have deemed it necessary to tell of death, and fear, and grief, her loyalty to spiritual sense forbade it. This standard enables one to find, in every hour of the day, opportunity to watch and weigh one's frankness in both voluntary and involuntary expressions, that it may serve the purposes of God and not be misused by selfishness or ignorance. And it may reasonably be concluded that the man who is thus faithful to his God. will be found upright and just to his fellow-man, ready always to meet him in all courage and candor. Such a man is finding his relationship to God so securely, that his brightening sense of honesty permeates all his motives, reasons, and conclusions.

This growing fineness of feeling contains no element of weakness, of compromise, of instability, nor even of diplomacy, although its tenderness toward others may, at first glance, be thus misunderstood. Gentle and refined, seeking to heal and to save. detecting swiftly all that is unlike Christ, yet in mighty compassion sweeping away the tissue of lies, this beautiful spirit is described in St. Paul's exquisite tribute to charity in his letter to the Corinthians. It "suffereth long, and is kind: ... envieth not; ... vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. doth not behave itself unseemly. seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth."

May we all who name the name of Christ be found abiding in that lofty sense of honesty and honor which knows no compromise with self, yet can stoop to the byways and hedges to find the bruised and blinded children of men, that it may lead them into the ways of peace.