Article October 14, 1911 Issue

IMPERSONALITY OF TRUTH

WILLIAM E. BROWN.

If there is one thing more than another for which the world owes our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, a debt of unfailing gratitude, it is her continuous insistence upon the impersonal nature of Truth. For years she counseled her students and followers not to look to her personality for guidance, but to the eternal Truth which through her was revealed to the world. She early recognized the danger of depending upon personality instead of Principle, and wisely took steps to avoid the establishment of personal authority in regard to herself and also in connection with the Churches of Christ, Scientist. Of personal worship she has written thus in the pamphlet "Personal Contagion": "Every loss in grace and growth spiritual, since time began, has come from injustice and personal contagion. Had the ages helped their leaders to, and let them alone in, God's glory, the world would not have lost the Science of Christianity."

No more selfless revelator and teacher of spiritual truths ever lived than the Discover of Christian Science. She rebuked personal adoration and requested her followers to abstain from all that savored of personal homage, ever exhorting her students to follow her only as she followed Christ. This selflessness, this meekness, evidences the divine nature of her message to mankind and encourages the student to lean upon Principle to guide and direct his every action. What supreme satisfaction to realize that one can appeal direct to divine Love for counsel and guidance ; that he is free, like the high priests of old, to enter the holy of holies and commune with the Father of all.

Christian Science, the exact knowledge of Christianity, is not true merely because it was taught by Jesus in the first century or by Mrs. Eddy in the twentieth century. On the contrary, these teachers taught that which had always been true. In reply to Pilate, Jesus said, "For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." This truth had existed throughout all time, and the great Teacher was simply bearing witness to it. How helpful is this thought that Truth is ever present, ever manifesting itself when fitting channels are provided. This idea is beautifully expressed in the words of a most helpful hymn by Archbishop Trench, who urges mankind to "make channels for the streams of love," and he reminds us that "love has overflowing streams, to fill them every one."

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