Editorial August 23, 1913 Issue

MODERATION

Annie M. Knott

The dictionaries describe a moderate man as one who is "not extreme, excessive;" as one who is "temperate, calm, reasonable, gentle;" and St. Paul says, "Let your moderation be known unto all men." Temperance, a synonym for moderation, is one of the transitional qualities mentioned on page 115 of Science and Health and is linked to meekness, which indicates that we are not to make our own views a criterion for others in the demonstration of Christian Science.

Christ Jesus said that people would come from the east, the west, the north, and the south to "sit down in the kingdom of God." These words mean much more than their geographical significance would imply, and point to the widely different conditions of human experience from which mortals are led to find their way to the realm of Truth and of harmony. Thus we find among the ranks of Christian Scientists people whose past experiences, social, intellectual, religious and non-religious, may still be seen as factors to be considered in the working out of their problems; and while the truth makes no weak concessions to error, it shows that the demands of Principle must be looked to rather than any one's opinion as to how fast another should "grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection" (Science and Health, p. 254). The great Teacher made this very clear when he said that one should get the beam out of his own eye before attempting to remove the mote from that of a neighbor, and yet he emphasized the fact that both of these obstructions to perfect vision must be taken away.

In studying Jesus' parables we see that he took human conditions exactly as he found them, and then showed the marvelous results which follow when the influence of the leaven of Truth is felt. If we take the story of the prodigal son, we have simply a sad picture of mortal experience. The belief in the fall of man was no doubt held by most of Jesus' listeners, and with the utmost moderation, and almost entire avoidance of theological dogma, he showed what Truth can do when one awakens from the riotous dream of life in matter, with its false pleasures and equally false pains and penalties.

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