Editorial December 7, 1918 Issue

The Golden Rule

William D. McCrackan

To love one's neighbor as one's self and to do unto others as one would be done by are different statements of the same rule. The Golden Rule is a spiritual inheritance of the race, treasured by all who love God and man. It is spiritually self-evident, so that it is not open to debate, but its practical application encounters the opposition of the world, the flesh, and the devil. These deep-seated antagonisms can only be successfully destroyed by Christian Science, because that Science alone copes with mental suggestions by exposing their powerlessness. The Golden Rule requires right thinking as the basis of right acting; it cannot be strictly obeyed without an understanding of Christian metaphysics, which reveals the nothingness of material life and experience. The understanding of the infinite goodness of God and of the fact that God is Mind brings the scientific assurance that an absolutely good Mind conceived and created the universe including man and controls now now and forever. The unity of God and man proves the unsubstantial nature of hatred, envy, fear, and all other mental concepts which seek to break the Golden Rule, and teaches us to love our enemies, thus blessing instead of cursing them.

Public thought has now been startled into taking account of the dangers of wrong thinking. It has been forced to consider the workings of an enemy psychology which sought to dominate the world by breaking the Golden Rule mentally, that is, by propagating mental suggestions which were intended to control and confuse the human mind into subjection. Christian Science provides a complete remedy for such attempted mental manipulations. It teaches mankind that there is no law, no necessity which can force anyone to pick up evil suggestions and make them a part of one's thinking; that, on the contrary, it is man's privilege and right to think in accordance with the commands of the divine Mind, God, and thus to elude all the mental pitfalls artfully prepared by the cunning of the carnal mind.

Many years ago Mrs. Eddy warned her followers not only against unconscious wrong thinking, which is characteristic of all mortals, but also against these very methods of conscious wrong thinking which have been laid bare during the world war. She states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 31), "To mentally argue in a manner that can disastrously affect the happiness of a fellow-being—harm him morally, physically, or spiritually—breaks the Golden Rule and subverts the scientific laws of being." The intentional wrong thinker uses the world's commonly accepted falsities with which to attack the spiritually minded in the attempt to deter them from obeying God and following the Golden Rule. Since the law of God must invariably displace the law of the world, the evil planner whispers to those who heal the sick by spiritual means, What will the world think? and to those who fight for liberty, What will people say? When Herodias' daughter asked the head of John the Baptist, Herod, we read in Scripture, "was exceedingly sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her." Pilate, though reluctant to deliver Jesus to the mob and in spite of his wife's warning was yet persuaded to do so because he was "willing to content the people." Moral courage born of spiritual conviction could alone give the necessary strength to Mary Baker Eddy to give the world her revolutionary book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." If the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science had obeyed the voice of the world she could not have blessed the world.

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