Article October 8, 1921 Issue

Righteousness

EMILIE K. HILL

Astudy of the scientific statement of being, as found on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, reveals the fact that all being is mental, for the grand conclusion therein reached is that man, the image of spiritual good, God, is not material but spiritual. Therefore, it follows that all of man's deeds, in the realm of the real—and man cannot, of course, do anything unreal—are spiritual, the expression of the one infinite Mind.

Now a dictionary defines righteousness as doing rightly. Then if all man's doing be spiritual and mental, it follows that doing rightly must mean thinking rightly, first of all. Therefore, a righteous man, in the true sense of the phrase, is a right-thinking man. How enlightening, then, becomes our study of the Scriptures when we substitute "righteousness" for "right-thinking." It is open to any one to prove the absolute truth of the passage in Isaiah, "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever." Mrs. Eddy says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210): "The right thinker abides under the shadow of the Almighty. His thoughts can only reflect peace, good will towards men, health, and holiness."

Then if a man undertakes to think rightly, to think of nothing but right, that is to think so constantly of God and His infinite manifestation of goodness, that he has no time to think of any suppositional evil, however seemingly real, he finds himself often startled by the sudden results in his life. For, it is a fact, proved every day by thousands of Christian Scientists, who gladly, joyously testify to it, that when one does whole-heartedly, whole-mindedly turn from a contemplation of evil to a contemplation of good, he finds good to be his only experience.

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