Article March 18, 1911 Issue

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

EDNA HUDSON HOSMER.

It is the splendid privilege of every man and woman to be a Christian Scientist; that is, to be a scientific Christian—one who proves that the teaching of Jesus the Christ is forever true and hence demonstrable today, even as it was nineteen hundred years ago. If we realize this, namely, that Christian Science is the Science of being—the truth about life—as taught by Jesus the Wayshower, and that it is based on a divine Principle (as the truth must ever be) to be demonstrated by the individual for and by himself; if we see clearly, furthermore, that to become a Christian Scientist must of necessity be an individual problem, we shall at the same time acknowledge that Christian Science itself is not to be justly judged by the unideal progress or the retrogression of Christian Scientists.

The possible spiritual success or defeat of any man means very much to the individual, but it does not affect the truth of Science. If one is honest with himself, and earnestly strives to work out his own life-practice according to the demands of Principle, he is very sure to discover when and where he has made a mistake, if so be. In the same way, when after faithful study and the patient application of a given rule he gets the right result, it is he who is most surely and intelligently satisfied. Paul wrote, in his epistle to the Philippians: "Work out your own salvation." Would it not be well for each one of us to remind ourselves of this very frequently, and when some professing Christian Scientist fails at a certain point in his career to practise what he has dared to preach, would it not be wise to recall these words of our Master, spoken to Peter, "What is that to thee? follow thou me"?

Could we have the reverence and loving respect we feel today for the disciples of Jesus, if they had turned away from his teaching in confusion because Judas, who had professed so great a devotion to the cause of Truth, failed in the crucial hour to prove his fidelity? Indeed, if they had perceived the full import of their Teacher's perfect example, they would not have paused in their work to condemn Judas, but would have realized at once that their only duty lay in proving themselves true beyond the possibility of being tempted in a like manner.

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