Editorial February 28, 1920 Issue

Tolerance and Intolerance

William P. McKenzie

Since the primary problem is always with the man himself, it is clear that one who is going to be a Christian Scientist can allow absolutely no tolerance for any error within. The righteous man must be strict with his own thinking, like the mathematician who knows that he must be exact in his computation. In neither case is even a little mistake excusable. That which is right is devoid of any error. Our textbook says plainly (Science and Health, p. 129), "Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in premise or conclusion."

When a man is clear of error within he can look kindly upon mankind. Knowing good to be reality, he can see the possibility of good reaching all others with its blessing. This explains the faith and patience of the just man. If he seems severe, it is with himself, so that he may be continually true to his standard; with others he is tolerant because he knows that as regards them God is waiting to be gracious. Here is Isaiah's vision of divine goodness: "Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment."

Paul as a Christian was a man of great kindness and tolerance. His picture of the attitude and character of the true gentleman, in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, reveals his ideal; but in those other days when he was not humble but proud, not gentle but arrogant, not a Christian but an ecclesiast, he was an extreme example of intolerance. Through a cherished sense of the reality of evil he looked upon life, and this wrong attitude was very well illustrated at the time when he was overseeing the murder of Stephen at Jerusalem and when he was persecuting the church in other cities. The time came when, as he said, "It pleased God . . . to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen." Thereafter, because he knew himself as a son of God, he looked upon mankind kindly and became tolerant even as was his and our example, Christ Jesus.

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