Editorial May 31, 1919 Issue

True Service

Ella W. Hoag

Service has been so frequently regarded from the standpoint of selfishness, that the beauty and richness of its true aspect has seemed largely obscured to human consciousness. Jesus said, "I am among you as he that serveth," and his life work might be characterized as a perfect service to God and man. Some men in all ages have responded to an inspiration to help their fellow men; but mankind in general has seemed dull and slow to recognize that such constant service as Jesus exemplified could be either desirable or possible for others. And yet all Christians unite in accepting Christ Jesus as their Exemplar, and what is an exemplar for, if not to be followed. Christian Science emphasizes the necessity of following him at all times and ever lifts up the right idea of service.

Mrs. Eddy tells us in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 3), "The only true ambition is to serve God and to help the race." Then true service must be that service which is rendered to God and mankind from the standpoint of unselfish love. Present such a simple statement of the meaning of true service to the Christian world and it would no doubt acclaim its complete acceptance of it; but if asked to comply continually with its implied demands it would as surely lift up its hands and cry, "Impossible!"

Christian Science, in its teaching that God is Mind and that man is the image and likeness of Mind, shows that every right activity starts from the standpoint of right thinking. To accept mentally a constant service to God and mankind as not only a possibility but a necessity of righteousness, is to have taken the first step toward its demonstration. One of the glories of infinite Mind is the fact that the moment a divine idea has been recognized and accepted, that idea begins to unfold, begins to act in its divine capacity to govern the individual consciousness. Mrs. Eddy teaches this in "Miscellaneous Writings," where she says (p. 307), "God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies." Now, for instance, let us consider this idea of true service and see some of the ways in which it can unfold and supply right activity. In the first place true service is always loving, considerate, patient, self-forgetful. It seeks its own in another's good. It never stops to ask what sacrifices must be made, what rough roads it must travel, what seductions of personal, material sense must be relinquished. It just loves to serve. It loves to reflect Love.

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