Editorial April 20, 1912 Issue

BUILDING ARIGHT

Archibald McLellan

Some one has wisely said that to work for the good of all is indirectly to compass our own. While this is doubtless true, it is also to be remembered that the foundation of collective goodness is based upon that of the individual. When Jesus gave to humanity that great saying which has since been called the golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," he was but restating the old Mosaic law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," a statement entirely consistent with his other great saying, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," for this is likewise a foundational premise, in that with the attainment of this kingdom is coupled the promise that "all these things," all the good that is man's rightful heritage, shall be added.

The mistake of some reformers has been that they have endeavored to build from the superstructure down to the foundation, depending upon the enforcement of human law for the accomplishment of results, rather than upon the regeneration of the individual from within. Not so Christ Jesus. He was content to take a few fishermen and others of equally low degree, from the worldly point of view, and to inspire in them individually the love of God and man which destroys all sin and all selfishness. He knew that only by precept and example, which would show that the kingdom of God was more to be desired than all else, could he build up that kingdom on earth. He knew, as some are beginning to understand today, that men are not made pure, temperate, unselfish, holy, by statute law. Paul knew this when he wrote to the Philippians, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Mrs. Eddy knew it when she wrote, "Keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. ... There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness" (Pamphlet, What Our Leader Says).

As consistent followers of Christ Jesus, Christian Scientists have before them the upbuilding of Christian character, not simply because it will profit them so to live, but because it is right that they and all men should so live that the glory of God is reflected in human affairs. When human living is so ordered that all men humbly seek first the kingdom of God as their paramount desire, this will be reflected in unselfishness; the divine Principle of man will be universally known, and humanity will realize and demonstrate the sublime truth of Mrs. Eddy's words on page 340 of Science and Health: "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."

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