Editorial December 30, 1916 Issue

The Model Home

Annie M. Knott

It is agreed by most people that the word home is one of the dearest in the English language, which means of course the spiritual idea back of the word; for until human thought is lifted above materiality, the ideal home is not realized,—indeed, it is hardly even perceived. At the present time we hear a good deal about model cities,—and in fact models of every kind, including homes,—but no one claims that they have yet been realized to any extent. It is, however, very encouraging to find that the desire for better things, nobler things, is growing at the heart of humanity; and because the desire is a righteous one, it will be expressed as humanity advances in spiritual understanding.

Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 58), "Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the center, though not the boundary, of the affections." Too many people think of a home as necessarily a place where one's own family lives, when under present conditions people often have to seek and find home elsewhere; and this is undoubtedly the right thing to do, for the real light of the home is the radiance and warmth of Truth and Love which may be found wherever there is one who loves God and his fellow man.

At the present time, as never before perhaps, it is admitted that purity is the first requisite in the home, although to the one outside of Christian Science this might be named cleanliness. The Scientist, however, would say that genuine and abiding cleanliness must spring from the spiritual quality known to us as purity. The Master said that it was not enough to make clean the outside of the "cup and platter," and he added that when the inside was cleansed the outside would be "clean also." No one would deny that cleanliness is essential to health; and the Christian Scientist would hold to this most firmly, only the cleanliness must spring from within and reach out to the very limits of human thought and its expression. Then we have something which is worth while in the way of health, that which was promised of old when God said through the prophet Jeremiah, "I will restore health unto thee."

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