Article June 5, 1920 Issue

"Excellency of speech"

HAZEL L. ZIMMERMAN

Paul, that tireless advocate of right thinking, has given to the world in his first letter to the Corinthians an urgent plea for right speaking, or, as he so fittingly puts it, "excellency of speech." It is significant to the Christian Scientist to note that Paul begins at once to impress upon his readers the necessity of voicing only that which is good when he says, "I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge." Think what it means to us to know that real man as perfect idea of the one perfect Mind can neither speak nor think anything that is unlike that perfect Mind! Could there be a more lasting demonstration of the power of Truth and Love than to have every individual one meets each day think and speak only that which is good—only that which is true, and consequently only that which is founded upon Principle?

Is not that what Paul has in mind when he goes on to say, "Now I beseech you, brethren, ... that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment"?

Mortal mind would try to make itself a reality by endeavoring to force upon us the divided garment—fear where courage should triumph, criticism where praise is due, hatred where Love should stand, but Christian Science helps us to separate the tares from the wheat so that the realities may remain and the unrealities be destroyed by the very fact that they are unreal. Was it not this very temptation to let in the unrealities that Mrs. Eddy warns us against when she says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 392): "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously"? Then in the measure that we are obedient in voicing only that which is good do we realize that "metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul" (Science and Health, p. 269). Excellency of speech is possible to each one of us, and as active Christian Scientists we must be alert to the responsibility it involves.

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