Fulfilling Our Promise

The sixth of the tenets of The Mother Church, which are to be found on page 497 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," reads as follows: "And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure." During the reading of this tenet in a church service, there unfolded to the writer a beautiful realization of what absolute obedience to its text by all who have subscribed to it would mean. What is it that we would have others do unto us? There is a vast difference between the interpretation generally put on what is known as the golden rule and that gained in the light of Christian Science. In the application of this rule, before we can decide what to do unto others we must first decide what we would have them do unto us. In a human sense, analysis of this rule in its broadest terms would mean kindness, fairness, justice, and very often sympathy in afflictions, all fashioned after the imperfect human model and accompanied by the individual's own limited understanding as to what constitutes these qualities; for the human mind, believing in both perfection and imperfection, is incapable of manifesting anything better than its own conceptions.

But what does the application of this rule mean to us as Christian Scientists? What should we do unto others and have them do unto us? Is it not, as contained in the tenet, to "watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus"? In other words, it calls for a constant realization of man's perfection, of man as the true expression of his infinite Principle, Love, subject to no mortal law of sin, disease, or death. This pure realization denies every element of imperfection and floods consciousness with the light of the one perfect creation. Faithful obedience to this rule means putting it into practice in all our daily living, in our business, our household, our church work, in every activity which confronts us.

Surely, this is what we would have others do unto us, and it is what we have solemnly promised to do unto them. A solemn promise is something we have earnestly or seriously undertaken to do. What a wonderful opportunity it presents! Gratitude for the enlightenment which enables us to distinguish between the real and the unreal, should inspire thought to greater efforts to understand and reflect more of that same love which was manifested by Christ Jesus in his earthly ministrations; for it is only through loving purely and unselfishly that we can rise above the mortal seeming into the realization of the perfect man. Every sincere effort to rise above the false testimony of the physical senses will broaden and sweeten our experience, and prove to be another step in the demonstration of ultimate harmony.

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Man's Possibilities
November 23, 1918
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