Article May 4, 1912 Issue

"NOT ACCORDING TO THE APPEARANCE."

SAMUEL GREENWOOD.

No matter what may be our work or our position, we each need the other's help and encouragement and good will at all times. No human being is perfect, but so far as he is striving to be, he finds the current of the erring, finite senses pushing hard against him, and our sympathy should prompt us not to add to the force of this current. The thought or word that is not helpful to another must detract from one's own success, since it is the law of divine justice that whatever we bestow upon others comes back to us in the same measure. Therefore our own welfare, if nothing more, should lead us to do good unto all men, and to think good unto them also. Commenting unfavorably upon our coworkers for the common good, passing along an unkind and perhaps untrue judgment for another to overcome or to pass on in turn, does not express the love that "thinketh no evil, ... but rejoiceth in the truth;" that is, rejoices to know the true man. While we lend ourselves to such things, it is evident we are not thinking of man as the son of God but as the child of error, as something which man is not; and we must lift thought above these human concepts before we can discern what God's idea is.

It may appear to us that certain persons are too self-assertive or domineering; or, on the other hand, that they are shy and diffident; that they talk too much or too little; that they are not this or that which we think they ought to be, or that they do thus or so which we think they ought not, and so on. But what right have we to judge them by the outward appearance only? Are things or men what they seem? Do we believe man to be no better than he appears to human sense? Are we not rather striving to learn that the perfect God makes all things perfect, and that the imperfect and the unpleasing are the untruths of existence? If one of these people upon whom we pass judgment should apply to us for help, would we affirm or deny the unfavorable things we have been thinking and talking about him? If we would not bear false witness against our neighbor, we should not think or voice concerning him what we would be ashamed to affirm in a treatment, knowing them to be false. Had Jesus thought in this manner about the woman known as Mary Magdalene, had he shared others' opinions about her, or based his judgment upon human sense testimony, would he ever have healed and redeemed her?

If we are going to deny the physical evidence when one comes for treatment, but accept it when he does not, it is difficult to see where we are going to draw the line between what is and is not true, or whereon we can found the claim that we are Christian Scientists. We know that only as we discern in Science the truth of man's perfection as the idea of God are we enabled to heal the errors of mortals; hence we should know that the healing thought is inseparable from the thought of perfection. How, then, can we hope to send out this healing thought, so sorely needed by mankind, while we dwell upon or call attention to or accept the evidence of human frailty and imperfection? Every one upon whom our thought rests, or who claims our mental attention, is our patient to the extent of our duty to think rightly about him, just as much as if he came into our office or home and asked for help. We shall find it more than uphill work getting into the kingdom of heaven if we are going to "judge righteous judgment" only when this coincides with our own views, or when we know we cannot accomplish the result in any other way, and judge unrighteous judgment at other times.

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"NOT ACCORDING TO THE APPEARANCE."

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