Editorial May 24, 1919 Issue

The Single Eye

Ella W. Hoag

No divided purpose has ever been brought to perfect fulfillment. No aspiration can win its desired heights except the eye be kept single to its exalted demands. Work in a direct line is always necessary to success in any endeavor. Jesus taught this with great clearness when he said: "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness."

Jesus' entire life work was wrought out with the single vision. He had one purpose and one only,—to do the will of God. He listened to no temptation to relinquish this purpose; his every thought and his every act were in obedience to its requirements. With this perfect purpose always in sight he walked in the light which kept him on guard against every possible phase of evil. He ever held his desire loyal to his purpose; for he knew that with a correct desire or motive, right action must follow. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 162), in speaking of Jesus Mrs. Eddy says: "Materiality, worldliness, human pride, or self-will, by demoralizing his motives and Christlikeness, would have dethroned his power as the Christ." No human sacrifice was so great, no steadfast effort so severe in its requirements, as to cause him to swerve even momentarily from the straight path of his endeavor; for he understood perfectly how all that was to be desired lay in the path of righteousness he trod. We all know he won the Christhood, and thus proved himself the Son of God. A world calling itself Christian testifies to his success, and to-day as never before it is reaching out to find the way to follow him.

Right here Christian Science comes to define that way so plainly that "wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." One definition given of the single eye is: "To be divinely and clearly instructed and unremittingly desirous of knowing the will of God in order to glorify Him. Where this is, the whole consciousness must be full of light,—the individual is rightly directed;" and Mrs. Eddy states it yet more succinctly on page 106 of Science and Health, where she says: "Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love." In other words, Christian Science shows that to have a single eye one's purpose must be to seek constantly the guidance of divine Principle in order that God's will may be known and obeyed and He thereby be glorified. Isaiah says: "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, ... I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory."

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