Editorial October 10, 1914 Issue

"Godly sorrow"

Annie M. Knott

As the Bible is studied in the light of Christian Science, we become more and more aware of the fact that the Scriptures must be interpreted spiritually in order to gain a demonstrable sense of their teachings; otherwise, they often seem self-contradictory. When, however, we apply the Principle of all harmony, we leave behind us the old concepts, which did not satisfy the demands of our higher nature, and gain new views of the progress possible in the truly Christian life.

In the seventh chapter of II Corinthians St. Paul discriminates between the ordinary sense of sorrow, which he says "worketh death," and that which he terms "godly sorrow," that "worketh repentance . . . not to be repented of." He then goes on to speak of the effects of this truer sense of sorrow, which undoubtedly includes the "sorrow for wrongdoing" characterized by Mrs. Eddy as "one step toward reform" (Science and Health, p. 5). Paul says of it, "What carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, . . . yea, what revenge!" The last word seems almost incomprehensible until we ponder a passage in Romans which reads: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink." Here we have a very different view of revenge from that commonly entertained, but it is what we should expect when we know that God is Love. The demands of Principle must be vindicated, even if the living water offered for the opponent's thirst may seem as "coals of fire on his head."

"Godly sorrow," which clears up things so marvelously, must in its highest significance be no mere personal grief, but deep regret that humanity has so lost sight of divine Truth as to be in bondage to the evil beliefs of sin, disease, and death. This is finely illustrated in the account of Jesus' weeping over Jerusalem, and again at the grave of Lazarus. He whose whole nature radiated joy, the joy which proves Life in its fulness and melts away even the shadow of death, could weep because, as he said to those who rejected the truth he offered them, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." This was the cause of his sorrow when he grieved at all. There was no element of selfishness or worldliness in this feeling, and he gave the fullest proof that "divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object," and that "sorrow is not the master of joy" (Science and Health,p. 304). This vital truth brings the salvation of which the apostle wrote, with a "vehement desire" for a fuller realization of it at all times. It is true that sorrow for wrong-doing on one's own part is also to be regarded as "godly sorrow," but when right-doing is the rule of each hour, joy for the healing and saving truth takes its place, even as light disposes of darkness.

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