Article October 6, 1917 Issue

Unity

STOKES ANTHONY BENNETT

On page 264 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says: "Unity is the essential nature of Christian Science. Its Principle is One, and to demonstrate the divine One, demands oneness of thought and action." How very important it is, then, that we as Christian Scientists should keep ever before us the high thought of unity! How important that we should allow nothing to obscure or to dislodge this thought, thereby jeopardizing our individual progress and hindering the advancement of our cause! Mrs. Eddy knew full well the value of true unity, and her many admonitions to work for and to preserve this unity are significant beyond degree. They are, as it were, guideposts along the upward way of every honest truth seeker, which point him to the shining goal of successful demonstration. They are in a word, direct and sure leadings to practical Christian Science.

As we are told in the foregoing quotation, the Principle of unity is "One," and this "One" of course means God, the source and support of all that really is. Unity, therefore, is an attribute or a quality of God, an expression or a reflection of His oneness. It is the perfect spiritual bond which reveals God and His handiwork as indivisible and inseparable, as forever infinite. It is the immortal, eternal link which discloses the indissoluble connection between the creator and His creation, between Mind and its idea, Truth and its manifestation, Love and its object. Wonderful in meaning, mighty in strength, and unfailing in accomplishment, unity is indeed "the beauty of holiness." Born of God Himself, unity is and ever will be the grand exemplification of the allness or wholeness of Deity, and therefore of the oneness of divine, omnipotent Principle.

"To demonstrate the divine One, demands oneness of thought and action." Here we have a declaration by our Leader which is nothing less than a brief outline of the standard by which we may see how much we understand of the Principle of Christian Science, and how much we are proving of this Principle. To put it differently, this declaration is the sure, unmistakable test of our sincerity and honesty, and of our fidelity to the teaching which we profess to espouse and to follow. "To demonstrate the divine One" is really all there is to Christian Science,—the Science of spiritual being,—for, as we have already seen, this "divine One" is God, and God is the Principle, the essence or cause of whatever truly exists. Therefore the work, the only work, the only work, of Christian Scientists is to demonstrate Principle; to prove the entireness of God and of His reflection.

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