Editorial July 10, 1915 Issue

Abundantly Enriched

John B. Willis

The teaching of Christian Science begets a new and most significant sense of the greatness of man, of the Christlikeness of his nature, the richness of his endowments, the relatively unlimited range of his appointed rule. It thus awakens a new thought of individual worth, and of what one may do and accomplish the moment when, having come to himself, he escapes from that weakening sense of good-for-nothingness which is not only entertained, but consented to and insisted upon as a fact, by very many Christian believers. To know a really respectable self that one can have a good opinion of and abiding confidence in, is manifestly vital to our realization of freedom for great undertakings.

The visitor to St. Mark's, Venice, is at once impressed with the quality of the building, the choiceness and rarity of its marbles, and the richness and profusion of its decorations. From base-line to dome its walls and columns and arches bring to the eye a wealth of delicate natural colorings to which nothing is comparable save the tinted fields of a sunset sky. It is perhaps the finest product of the constructive genius and the orientally luxuriant taste of a great temple building era ; and when one remembers that it was the pride of a prosperous and artistic people, whose far-ruling thrift made it possible for them to gather votive offerings for its embellishment from many lands, he may find in it a symbol of that enriched and beautified character, that adorned excellence and efficiency, which was outlined by St. Paul when he said to the Corinthians, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you ; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work . . . being enriched in every thing."

That the Christian man, and especially the Christian Scientist of today, has received a wondrous inheritance of good through the heroic devotion of his predecessors, and that larger command of facts and of natural law which inquiry and invention have brought him, goes without saying; and the query, "What would my forbears, who with relatively meager means did so much, have accomplished with my possessions?" can but be a pertinent stimulus to every man of alert moral sense. Moreover, the recognition of man as the image and likeness of God, a perfect expression of the infinite wisdom, and having at his command all the resources of divine law, can but vastly enhance a man's concept of his individual privilege and possibility of achievement upon this plane of consciousness. It is just here that the teaching of Christian Science vitally relates itself to his spiritual growth and efficiency, to his calmness, courage, and that practical helpfulness to humanity which all men at their best will frankly acknowledge to be the only thing really worth while. It is surely ours "to hold the banner of Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God" (Science and Health, p. 426).

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