Editorial November 10, 1917 Issue

Righteousness Relief from False Responsibility

William D. McCrackan

The Discoverer of Christian Science in her writings lays stress upon the necessity for a right sense of responsibility, as witness for example her statement on page 119 of "Miscellaneous Writings" in her address on "Obedience": "We are responsible for our thoughts and acts; and instead of aiding other people's devices by obeying them,—and then whining over misfortune,—rise and overthrow both. If a criminal coax the unwary man to commit a crime, our laws punish the dupe as accessory to the fact. Each individual is responsible for himself." This moral responsibility is paid in full by disobedience to error and obedience to God, and underlying true obedience must ever be the realization that God is the only cause and creator and therefore bears the only real responsibility for man and the universe. Many a grand individual occupying a post of extraordinary usefulness to mankind has been brought to his knees and then to the ground by a false sense of responsibility, which in the subtlest sort of way ultimates in self-righteousness.

Practical Christian Scientists are aware of this temptation which tries to creep into their work and make them assume personal power and deny God as the only Principle. In this way the practitioner may be made to lose his practice and the church officer his opportunities for doing good. Even in the ordinary business enterprises of the world a highly developed sense of self-importance surely brings forth its own retribution; how much more certainly in the activities of the Christian Science movement, wherein it is taught that God is the only real power.

There is a sense in which the word responsibility describes a virtue, as when it is used by Mrs. Eddy in the quotation from her writings to which attention has already been called and when it refers to the quality of being able to respond to good or being amenable to it. But as generally used the word responsibility carries with it the burden of accountability for the things that be, implying that man is cause and creator. From this angle responsibility is seen to cover a misconception of the true nature of man as well as of God, and leads to self-righteousness. Man is effect not cause, and is himself active only in so far as he reflects God. Throughout the multifarious occupations of the children of men there are always positions which are designated as those of responsibility. Upon such positions public opinion places burdens which are often too heavy for their occupants to bear. These individuals need to protect themselves by realizing where the real responsibility lies and to cast their burdens upon Him. In this way Jesus could say, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light," because he admitted only one power, one ever active Father-Mother Mind.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Christian Science Compassionate