Article May 4, 1918 Issue

Personal Privilege

W. K. PRIMROSE

One of the most specious arguments of the human mind enticingly laid across the path of a Christian Scientist is that the student is, as such, entitled to personal privileges or to receive special consideration. Such an argument, when analyzed, is seen to be only another form of the suggestion, "Ye shall be as gods." It is interesting to note how greatly our motives and actions are unwittingly tinged by past experiences, and the thought of claiming a personal privilege for ourselves will probably be found to arise from the belief that one who is endeavoring to practice Christ's teachings belongs to a class separate and apart from others, although this is one of the many class distinctions which Christian Scientists are engaged in breaking down.

To claim a personal privilege is only another way of saying that some one else should do all the hard work and that the finer and more delicate work should be left to us,—in other words, that we are better than others. It is an accepted truism that there is a right place for every one, but many are unpleasantly aware that they are, relatively speaking, not in it, and others again amid constantly altering conditions are torn with doubt and uncertainty. What then is to be done if we find ourselves situated thus? The answer to this question is very clearly given in the fourteenth chapter of Luke, where we are told to go and sit down in the lowest room and wait to be called.

The lowest room, as we all know, is symbolic of humility, and it is when we become sufficiently humble and are really ready and willing to sit down in the lowest room and are truly glad to see others go forward in preference to ourselves that we receive the call, "Friend, go up higher." To go and sit down in the lowest room after years of hard and patient work, which has been rewarded by the accumulation of material possessions and a reputation for business acumen, is perhaps a hard thing to do, but still it is absolutely necessary, for Jesus said, "Except ye ... become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Later the same argument will present itself when we, having as it seemed received and answered the call to duty, find ourselves in the higher room. Then it is that we should remember Jesus' admonition that we have only done that which it was our duty to do, and we should be, as obedient servants, ready and willing to return again without a murmur to a lower room whenever required to do so.

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