Article June 28, 1919 Issue

There is, perhaps, no word in the English language about...

The Christian Science Monitor

There is, perhaps, no word in the English language about which more nonsense, and quite often more mischievous nonsense, is talked, than the word loyalty. For centuries and centuries loyalty meant essentially faithfulness to a person, who might be a Saint Louis, but who was equally likely to be a Robert the Devil. Nor, indeed, is it clear that the gulf between those two worthy princes was so unbridgeable as their names might seem to indicate. This, naturally, does not mean that during all those centuries no man saw the foolishness or the ludicrousness of the human suggestion. The Founder of the Christian religion, for instance, disposed of all the nonsense attaching to the idea in a single sentence, when he wrote, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Eighteen centuries later Mrs. Eddy insisted on the same truth, in Christian Science, when she called upon her followers only to follow her as she followed the Christ. The whole sentence, which occurs on page 34 of the Message of 1901 to The Mother Church, is so illuminating that the context may be quoted with advantage: "Finally, brethren, wait patiently on God; return blessing for cursing; be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good; be steadfast, abide and abound in faith, understanding, and good works; study the Bible and the textbook of our denomination; obey strictly the laws that be, and follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ."

There you have the footsteps of the Christ, walking in which, Mrs. Eddy implies, constitutes loyalty to Principle, and so to her; patience, forgiveness, faithfulness, understanding, demonstration, all comprising law, and the effort to obey the law that is loyalty. Consequently there is no such thing, and there can be no such thing, as loyalty to a person; for the person, by reason of his humanity, is disobedient to law. Now true law is the command of Principle, the working of Spirit. Therefore, there is no law but God's law. And as a result of this a man demonstrates his loyalty in proportion as he demonstrates his understanding of Truth or Principle, with the result that the measure of a man's loyalty is the measure of his demonstration. Surely, then, it was for this reason that Mrs. Eddy wrote in Article XXX, Section 7, of the Church Manual: "Healing the sick and the sinner with Truth demonstrates what we affirm of Christian Science, and nothing can substitute this demonstration. I recommend that each member of this Church shall strive to demonstrate by his or her practice, that Christian Science heals the sick quickly and wholly, thus proving this Science to be all that we claim for it."

It follows from all this that practically the highest proof of loyalty a man can give to-day is the metaphysical healing of the sick. For in order to heal the sick instantly, completely, uniformly, as Jesus healed them, it is necessary to have demonstrated patience and forgiveness, faithfulness and understanding, as well as all those other phases of obedience to law which constitute loyalty to divine Principle. No man, that is to say, could possibly heal the sick as Jesus healed them, who had not overcome sensual appetite, vainglory, and ambition, as Jesus overcame them in the temptations in the wilderness. Jesus himself made it clear that this was the case when he told his disciples, after their failure to heal the demoniac boy, that "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." What Mrs. Eddy understands by prayer she has told the world in that wonderful first chapter of Science and Health, where she has, on the very first page summed it up as desire. As for fasting, she has made the meaning of that equally clear, on page 339 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," when, alluding to Jesus' words, she writes, "The animus of his saying was: Silence appetites, passion, and all that wars against Spirit and spiritual power."

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