Article March 30, 1912 Issue

"ALL THINGS COMMON"

MYRA EMMONS.

In no respect is the divine wisdom which is reflected in the work of Mrs. Eddy more manifest than in the absence of arbitrary rules based on human concepts. The sublime self-abnegation which said to students of Christian Science, "Follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ" (Messages, p. 78), reflected too clearly the infinite and eternal to be shackled by narrow human limitations. In the establishment of man-made religions many a sect has been founded on some one sentence contained in the Scriptures or on some material interpretation of a single phase of truth, and such sects have benefited mankind only in proportion to their reflection of the Christ, Truth.

The founders of some of these sects have given much thought to the statement in the New Testament that the early Christians "had all things common." This statement has seemed to picture a desideratum. The picture has appealed to the yearnings of the human heart for the breaking down of cruel barriers which material sense imposes. Mankind has felt that there must be a great fundamental truth underlying this experience which the early Christians enjoyed, but mankind has itself put up the very barriers against which the ages have flung themselves in vain, and has at times hopelessly given up the struggle, saying, "Such conditions are not for our days;" or, "We must have competition," or some other makeshift of material sense, which ever seeks to evade its problems. Again the struggle has broken out in some new form, because the voice of our brother's blood must forever cry from the ground until all injustices and inequalities of material sense give place to the infinite divine justice, equality, and freedom which constitute the reality of man.

Noted thinkers have urged the claims of "all things common;" political economists have promulgated many theories and offered many possible solutions; Count Tolstoi devoted his life to the effort of illustrating his view of the demands of Christianity; rich men have surrendered vast fortunes in a supreme desire to show forth the Christ-love for mankind and bring about the millennium; great organizations of earnest men and women have garbed themselves in uniform, lived communistically, tried to divest themselves of their individuality and even of freedom in order to speed that glorious day when the brotherhood of man shall be firmly established. Not one of these sacrifices can be in vain, but a clear understanding of the truth of being alone offers the perfect fundamental solution of every human problem. By the spiritual interpretation of the Bible, as taught by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and her other writings, we perceive that we already have "all things common;" that is, all things which are real and eternal.

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