Article January 24, 1914 Issue

Trusting One Another

LUCY HAYS EASTMAN

The word suspicion is derived from the Latin word suspicere, meaning to esteem, to look up to, to mistrust. It may seem strange, perhaps, that the same word is used to designate two such opposite attitudes. Nevertheless, when we consider how long the world has looked up to personality, which has always proved untrustworthy, we understand why suspicion follows so frequently upon the footsteps of esteem. Although mortals are not perfect, yet we have placed faith in them as though they were, and that is why we so often make the piteous mistake of trusting the unworthy or mistrusting the worthy, until the heart becomes confused and embittered, perchance, with suspicious distrust toward all. It is this belief in personal good and evil which arouses suspicion; and it is suspicion which robs us of that confidence in one another's sincerity so necessary to establish the brotherhood of man.

"A pure faith in humanity," Mrs. Eddy writes, "will subject one to deception" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 338). How, then, is the sweet confidence in one another to be gained? Christian Science answers this question by turning thought away from person to Principle. Here, in the spiritual understanding of God's allness, we are able to detach evil from our thought of a brother and to see him as our Father's image. Then it is that we begin to perceive the attributes of Soul, reflected in justice, wisdom, goodness, etc., in which there is nothing to fear or mistrust. To behold the real man is to see him as the child of God, and in this way we shall come to trust one another more.

Because like responds to like, we must ourselves be true and faithful if we would trust and be trusted. What indeed is so sweet and strengthening as confidence in our fellows, and why should we not continuously enjoy it? It is the natural, normal relationship between man and man. Only vain imaginings, or the listening to the subtle insinuations of falsity, can deprive us of the joy of trusting one another. To have faith in man because he is God's likeness, is to prove the power of good over evil; it is to wipe away the tears of "man's inhumanity to man," to restore self-respect, to lift the weights of condemnation, to gain the willing acknowledgment of wrong-doing that is its destruction, and to heal that pernicious habit of looking for evil in our neighbor instead of for good. As we learn how thus scientifically to trust our fellow man, the belief in evil finds no ear to listen, no eye to see, no heart to fear it, and God alone is exalted before men.

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