Editorial March 9, 1918 Issue

The Uplifted Standard

Annie M. Knott

In the sixty-second chapter of Isaiah we find this command: "Lift up a standard for the people," and following this proclamation we read, "Behold, thy salvation cometh." To the student of Christian Science these words are very significant, whether they be taken as meaning the moral and religious standards of humanity or the flags which emblematically express these standards throughout the world. At the present hour, as never before, thinking people may well ask themselves what their standards are to them individually, and how far their words and deeds express to others the lofty ideals which all should hold.

Well did the great Teacher know that the nations of the earth chose to make their own standards, which were never very high, rather than to respond to the divine demand for perfection in all things, whether individual or national. It is, however, cheering to read Mrs. Eddy's words on page 174 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven on earth." This assures us that even the failures of all human systems or the mistaken efforts to live below the divine ideal will at length force mortals to accept God's way, and to find for the whole race the harmony, happiness, and holiness which are inseparable from obedience to divine law.

In looking at the flag of this great country, we are reminded that in every one of the states represented by its stars the Christ-healing brought to humanity in this age through Christian Science has been demonstrated, and well may we rejoice that enough of freedom is realized throughout this entire land to make the practice of Christian Science possible. Here it must be remembered, however, that the right to bring this healing truth to suffering humanity has been challenged by the representatives of materia medica in almost every one of this noble sisterhood of states. Christian Scientists have in a number of cases been compelled to defend their God-given and their constitutional rights before the courts,—and that not because of any failures on the part of this healing system, but rather because its successes aroused the advocates of material methods, so that they wished to make reliance upon spiritual law for healing unlawful.

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