Editorial January 14, 1922 Issue

Will and Relationship

Gustavus S. Paine

The only real will is the will of divine intelligence, and the only real relationship is that of divine intelligence to its idea or expression and of the idea to divine intelligence. This truth is fundamental to the teaching of Christian Science. Now the will of the divine Mind must be as infinite as Mind in expression, unlimited by any mere human interpretations, and with no possibility of confusion or conflict in its operation. Likewise the relationship of man, idea, to immortal Mind must be harmonious without limit, orderly in its infinity of unfoldment, and forever untouched by any mere human sense of what it is or ought to be. Sooner or later every mortal sense of will or of relationship must give way to the divine truth, which is, in fact, established by Principle as the reality now and forever.

When people consider themselves or others to be possessed of superior human wisdom, and wish to set up this supposed human superiority as worthy to govern others, they are vainly attempting to exalt human personality, and need to listen to the words of Job to Zophar the Naamathite: "No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?" The real man relies wholly on the one Mind, and the human counterfeit, miscalled man, must, in the last analysis, yield his will to this spiritual fact. Yet of the teaching and demonstration of Christ Jesus on this point Mrs. Eddy says, on page 94 of Science and Health, "The truly Christian and scientific statement of personality and of the relation of man to God, with the demonstration which accompanied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: 'Crucify him, crucify him ... by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.'" The belief in human wills and human relationship as paramount ever seeks to destroy the truth; but fortunately the truth is indestructible, and forever keeps false belief at the point of utter nothingness.

Nowadays, in the midst of deplorable human conditions, the poverty and general wretchedness of the slums, the occupational difficulties of laborers in huge industries, and the other complexities of modern civilization, the tendency is more and more toward human regulation of all sorts. As Professor Roscoe Pound of Harvard University frankly declares in his new volume of lectures on "The Spirit of the Common Law" in the United States, originally delivered at Dartmouth College: "Less than a generation ago we were echoing the outcry of our fathers against governmental paternalism. To-day, not only have we swung over to this condition in large measure, as our increasing apparatus of commissions and boards and inspectors testifies every day, but we are beginning to call for what has been styled governmental maternalism to meet the conditions of our great urban communities." Though Professor Pound evidently approves of the change, Christian Scientists know that the tendency is dangerous in so far as it would interfere, even seemingly, with the free, individual demonstration of divine Principle.

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