COURTESY

WINIFRED STANTON.

St. Paul admonishes us: "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." In studying the life and works of our Master, we can but notice in all his acts the extreme courtesy shown to all with whom he came in contact. Now this word courtesy has a much broader meaning than many imagine; kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, are all synonyms for courtesy. Webster describes it as "a desire to please others by studiously avoiding whatever might give them pain;" in other words, it is the putting into practice of the golden rule.

Our Master never forgot the human need of those around him. In the fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel we read that, notwithstanding the fact that Jesus had been teaching his disciples all day, when even was come and a storm arose they were afraid; but the Master first calmed their fear, by stilling the tempest, before he rebuked their want of faith. Again, in the cleasing of the leper, we know that no physical touch was necessary to heal the disease, but in that way the Master showed his sympathy for the man, who because of his uncleanness was debarred from all contact with others.

In the feeding of the multitude, in the hand stretched out to Peter when he was sinking beneath the wave; in fact, all through the Gospels, we see how quick our Master was to meet the smallest need of those around him, and should not we, as Christian Scientists, strive in our daily life to show those little acts of courtesy and kindness for which humanity hungering. Thus we shall let our "speech be always with grace," and perceive just how we "ought to answer every man."

Are we tempted sometimes to think we are too busy to show some little courtesy, or to perform some little act of kindness and consideration, which would perhaps be the means of helping a struggling brother to realize that we are trying to do unto others as we would have them do to us? We all know that Christian Scientists seldom have time for hospitality in the ordinary sense of the word, but the genuine Christian Scientist is never too busy to offer the word of explanation and of loving helpful interest.

If we turn to the tenth chapter of Luke's Gospel, we find a very forcible lesson on this subject in the parable of the good Samaritan, and again, in the eleventh chapter, in the story of the man who went to his friend at midnight to borrow bread. It were well for us to remember hourly the words of the church tenet which bid us "watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure" (Science and Health, p. 497).

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THE ANGEL GUARDIAN

December 25, 1909

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