Article May 22, 1915 Issue

Sincerity

HERBERT ARTHUR HUTCHINSON

In the fifth chapter of Matthew, which gives a portion of the Sermon on the Mount, the last verse reads: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Another rendering of the word here translated "perfect," is "sincere," and sincerity is one of the fundamental requirements of Christian Science.

In our problems in business, in church work, in our ministry of healing the sick and the sinning, if sincerity be lacking, our demonstrations are likely to be protracted and difficult, perhaps impossible. The minimum of truth does wonders, but surely we want the full radiance and not just the merest glint of good. In our daily life we must learn to say what we mean as well as to mean what we say, for one of the commonest and subtlest temptations of evil is to get us to say something so as to convey to another's thought that which is not quite true. The idea of good is incapable of plotting or of guile of any sort.

Human policy is often tainted with selfish motives; it is too insincere to be at all trustworthy. If, however, we are in earnest, sincere in our desire to let God rule, we shall receive those spiritual intuitions which always direct us aright. If we hold anything wrong in thought against a brother, we are bound in all justice to go to him and present the matter in accordance with the rule given in our Church Manual, or the accusation must be scientifically wiped out of consciousness in our own thought by realizing the truth about man. To hold another in condemnation without doing all we lovingly can to remove the charge against him, is sheer mental malpractice, and is forbidden in Christian Science.

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