Article January 16, 1915 Issue

Christian Unity

LEWIS C. STRANG

It is not uncommon for those who reverence Jesus the Christ and who are trying to follow his example, to wonder at the failure of the disciples, who were so closely associated with him, more fully to understand his mission and assimilate his teachings. It seems incongruous that in the presence of this marvelous exponent of divine wisdom and power the disciples should have wasted time in disputing about their personal worth, or that the sons of Zebedee should have had the effrontery to petition for personal aggrandizement.

Perhaps some have even thought that if they had been in the disciples' place, they would have made no such mistakes; their ears would not have been deaf to Jesus' teachings; they would never have lost the glory of the vision on the mount in the crude materialism of such a personal sense, under no circumstances would they have denied the Christ, as did Peter, or slept at Gethsemane, as did all the disciples. They do not stop to think that by expressing this criticism of others and this esteem of themselves they are doing precisely what they are sure they never would have done. Jesus' warning is far-reaching: "Judge not, that ye be not judged." And again, when you do judge, "judge righteous judgment."

The strength of the Christian Science movement is in its unity. To have one Mind is the ideal of Christian Scientists; it is also their salvation. Having a sound metaphysical basis in the fact that Mind by the very nature of its infinity is one, this unity is found to have a demonstrable basis just to the extent that the individual has sufficient understanding and confidence in the one Mind to enable him habitually to rely upon the activity of divine Principle for his good instead of upon human will. In order, therefore, to preserve the unity which is essential to the well-being of the cause of Christian Science, it is necessary that the individual Christian Scientist shall have consistent faith in good as the only power. This means that good must be to some extent dominant in his thought, and that, so far as he can, he must know only good, be only good, and see only good. This does not mean that one shall see evil as good, but rather that through his understanding of good as all, he shall so clearly perceive the unreality of evil that he is never deceived by evil's lies and false suggestions. This state of "not seeing evil" is in strict accord with Jesus' sense of things as expressed in his statement, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death."

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