Editorial December 14, 1918 Issue

Constitutional Rights

William P. McKenzie

It is customary to speak of some of the present day governments as Christian and of the people in many lands as Christian people. The uniting bond in Christianity is that all who follow Christ Jesus acknowledge the same God whom he named "My Father" as likewise their God and Father. That unity in prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to understand continues with all who use the Lord's Prayer when it is spiritually understood. Its opening phrase, "Our Father," means one God, and all those who pray aright acknowledge this one Mind. The public worship of God is a blessing to those who assemble for such prayer.

There are times when panic affects an army, dissolving its united strength into contending atoms, changing a man's brother at his right hand into a menace, and the friend at his left hand into a contagion of fear. When the cry is Sauve qui peut, and every one seeks to save himself only, then every man's hand seems to be against his neighbor in the ensuing disorder. And yet that is the very time when there is need for order to be exemplified, for peace to be illustrated, for intelligence to be obeyed, and for the power of Life and Truth to be understood.

When panic is caused in a community by a wave of polytheistic belief, that is, when it is advertised that a host of malignant gods are coming swiftly and unseen to assail different groups of mankind, then surely there is necessity for the calm reminding of men that God rules and that His law fulfills the purposes of love. Nowhere is this work of reminding men and women, and children too, better demonstrated than in the Christian Science movement, which is bringing right-mindedness into the world. Its reassuring literature is teaching mankind that God is the only Mind, and revealing the good effects when men understand His truth and are governed by divine intelligence. Those who accept the hospitality of its churches are practically fulfilling the old prophecy of Zechariah, because they are saying to the Christian Scientists who are their neighbors, "We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you." Abundant testimony comes from camp and town, war front and homestead, demonstrating the safety of those who put their trust in Mind, so we can well understand the basis for what Mrs. Eddy remarked in an interview (Miscellany, p. 344). Answering the question, "Do you reject utterly the bacteria theory of the propagation of disease?" she replied, "Entirely. If I harbored that idea about a disease, I should think myself in danger of catching it."

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