Editorial May 22, 1915 Issue

Uncompromised Truth

Archibald McLellan

Christian Scientists, in their endeavor to present the teachings of their religion in a way which will not too violently conflict with the views of those with whom they may be talking, are sometimes unconsciously under the temptation to color their statements or modify their practices to suit the previous concepts of their auditors. They are quite unaware that in so doing they are making a concession from the absolute line of Christian Science, a temptation they would do well to resist, even as Mrs. Eddy resisted a similar suggestion at the time she was writing Science and Health. She knew the truth she had discovered involved too radical a departure from the dicta of theology and materia medica to meet with ready acceptance from their exponents, but not even to enlist their interest would she or could she concede an iota of what she had tested and found true. Hence her frank statement (Pref., p. x), "The author has not compromised conscience to suit the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and honestly given the text of Truth."

In our efforts to overcome this temptation to compromise the truth, should it beset us, we will be helped if we remember that Christian Science is an exact science, a science which proceeds from divine Principle and therefore must be expressed in words and deeds which are in harmony with this Principle. This does not mean that we should talk of Christian Science in terms which are beyond the comprehension of those whom we are addressing, but rather that we should in many cases refrain from making explanations of Christian Science that we can readily see will be misunderstood.

When Jesus told his disciples it was expedient for them that he should go away, he also told them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." He preferred to say less than he otherwise might have to these faithful followers, rather than to tell them something which they could not understand at all or which they would have misunderstood. Certainly such a course was fairer to them and to himself than to have "compromised conscience to suit the general drift of thought," and to have left them with the belief that his teachings were other than they were.

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