Editorial June 13, 1914 Issue

The Duty of Today

Archibald McLellan

In these days of the manifest prosperity of Christian Science, it is well to ponder the words spoken by our wise Leader a number of years ago and republished on page 176 of "Miscellaneous Writings." Mrs. Eddy's endeavor at this time was to turn the thought of her students away from the commonplaces of life to the consecration of every-day living; from the satisfied sense of what had been done, to the more exalted sense of what might be done through the demonstration of Christian Science. She would awaken them to that high concept of responsibility which makes every man, in the right sense, his brother's keeper, and to their obligation to do whatever is possible to bless all mankind. She wished Christian Scientists to understand that they have a duty to perform, not vicariously and collectively, but individually; not perfunctorily, but actively and aggressively. She knew that by demonstrating Christian Science, and only by this demonstration, were the wrong conditions, which are "enmity against God," to be overcome and destroyed. Those were momentous questions in few words which she put to her followers:—

"But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith we are armored?"

In teaching the system which she rightfully named Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy early learned that it was not by simply repeating "All is good," that the world was to be reformed and mankind regenerated. She recognized that those who would help their fellows must be "willing to point out the evil in human thought, and expose evil's hidden mental ways of accomplishing iniquity" (Science and Health, p. 571). There needed to be the scientific demonstration of the omnipotence and ever-presence of God, which lays bare "the great delusion of mortal mind, when it makes them [mortals] sick or sinful" (Science and Health, p. 570).

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