Editorial July 8, 1916 Issue

Charity

Annie M. Knott

The deeper meaning of the word charity is seldom thought of by people in general, most of whom regard it as something which it were better not to be in need of. It is true that advancing spiritual understanding, as well as the Revised Version of the New Testament, has given to the thoughtful a nobler concept of what charity really means. That wonderful thirteenth chapter of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians offers to each sincere truth-seeker the means by which he may unfailingly test himself in order to learn how much of a Christian he is. As Mrs. Eddy says of St. John's vision (Science and Health, p. 571), this chapter "furnishes the mirror in which mortals may see their own image," and if honest contrast the spiritual ideal therein presented with the material counterfeit which begins and ends with a false concept of God, man, and everything — including charity.

In this chapter the apostle begins by uncovering the false sense of charity, — that which is material, and which consequently does not spring from love, indeed is not even related to it. Now charity which is real, according to Paul's criterion, is purely spiritual; hence it must spring from the infinite Love that is Spirit, and must be expressed spiritually. Could aught less than spiritual sense unfold the charity, or the love, which "suffereth long, and is kind," which "seeketh not its own," and which is "not provoked" (Rev. Ver.) ? When we are further told that this charity "never faileth," we see a most urgent reason why we should be so well acquainted with it that failure on our part to express it would be impossible.

On page 231 of "Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy says, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind,' but wisdom must govern charity, else love's labor is lost and giving is unkind." The Christian Scientist knows that his first duty in every case is to seek "first" that clear sense of man's relation to God which alone can illumine the path of duty and show when it is right to give and when it is right to withhold outward help. Christ Jesus did not send away the hungry unfed, nor did he seek provision for them from any material source. Through his marvelous understanding of spiritual law he opened wide the channels of divine bounty and all were fed; yet little would have been accomplished if the lesson of that hour had not passed the boundaries of material sense, if those fed had failed to see, as we read on page 206 of Science and Health, that Spirit, not matter, was "the source of supply." If those who partook of that scientifically prepared food saw it only as "the meat which perisheth," they surely deserved the Master's reproach, "Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled."

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