Editorial July 15, 1916 Issue

Facts and Fancies

Annie M. Knott

From the Christian Science standpoint facts are eternal realities, which survive the storm and stress of mortal experience and which are untouched by any and all misconceptions of their nature and possibilities. It is true that every great idea has ofttimes to suffer rude shocks from the selfish strivings of self-seeking mortals, but the fundamental truth which it expresses makes more insistent demand for recognition when mankind is even temporarily deprived of its light. Next to the fact of divine fatherhood comes the brotherhood of man, which will continue to make its appeal to the race until its true meaning is understood and demonstrated. Long ago Paul, in his famous discourse on Mars' hill, said that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined . . . the bounds of their habitation;" but even when Paul spoke there was no true knowledge of God, hence no true sense of brotherhood.

It is indeed startling to read that at the very dawn of material history, in the first family, brother rose up against brother and put him to death. Envy seemed to be the immediate exciting cause of this crime, but on page 541 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood of man at the very outset." No one can deny that there is a fundamental error at the basis of all human strife, and that were it not for gleams of spiritual reality the essential facts of being would be displaced in mortal sense by the fables and fancies of belief in a life separate from God and wholly unlike Him. Men read with horror the story of Cain's crime and then rouse themselves to a frenzy in dwelling upon what Shakespeare calls "the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!"

What, it may well be asked, is there in war that any should glory in it? Christ Jesus truly foretold "wars and rumors of wars," but it was he who said, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." It is absolutely certain that if brotherhood were understood as the inviolable relation of all God's children to each other, the beauty and strength of this spiritual bond and its limitless possibilities would dawn upon the race with new and holy hopes. Even the dependence of mortals upon each other, when seen in this light, means much more than material cooperation. It points out a wonderful pathway of discovery along which one's own capabilities for good may be found, tested, and applied in service to others. The next step is the discovery of a brother's divinely bestowed capacities, and their utilization through the faith which seeks and finds God's likeness everywhere. Until this is recognized there is not any cooperation worthy of the name, much less companionship.

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