Article April 15, 1922 Issue

Loyalty

WILLIAM HALE COOMBER

Christian Science demands loyalty. The word is defined in the dictionary as "firm allegiance," "fidelity," "constancy." Mrs. Eddy has often written of loyalty. On page 50 of "Retrospection and Introspection" she says: "By loyalty in students I mean this,—allegiance to God, subordination of the human to the divine, steadfast justice, and strict adherence to divine Truth and Love." To be a loyal citizen is a great thing; but to be loyal to God is greater. If one is loyal to God, one will be loyal to his fellow-men. This is accomplished by constantly removing from individual thinking, whether seen in one's self or in others, all that is unlike the truth.

Christian Scientists who are members of The Mother Church or its branches need to put this true idea of loyalty into practice by avoiding destructive criticism of church officers and members and giving them their loyal support, their best thoughts, at all times, ever remembering what the true concept of man really is—spiritual, not material. Assuredly, it is only through loyal, constructive thinking that right results can be obtained. If those in important positions in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, do not act as we think they should, yet are doing their best to uphold the By-laws of The Mother Church, where applicable, as well as their local church by-laws, and to live the lives of Christian Scientists, do they not need our best mental support? Even if they do not do their best, they still need our best thoughts. While remembering the Christly injunction to "judge not," and knowing that divine Love will remove and adjust whatever is wrong, and that evil is not real and is powerless, it is also well to keep before one the fact that a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, can only be formed by "loyal Christian Scientists" (Manual, Art. XXIII, Sect. 7). What Mrs. Eddy tells us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 203) is true: "Church laws which are obeyed without mutiny are God's laws."

When one remembers that Mrs. Eddy's life and writings were the outcome of her loyalty to divine Principle, and that, therefore, in order to acquire and practice genuine Christian Science it is necessary to abide by all that she has written for its furtherance in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in the Manual of The Mother Church, and in her other published writings, will not a loyal Christian Scientist be willing to do this? By so doing he will avoid and be protected from the pitfalls which might otherwise entrap him. Mrs. Eddy wrote in her Message for 1900 (p. 8): "Learn to obey; but learn first what obedience is. When God speaks to you through one of His little ones, and you obey the mandate but retain a desire to follow your own inclinations, that is not obedience." Obedience is akin to loyalty, and a loyal Christian Scientist is learning what obedience means. Loyalty then is a joy; and how necessary it is that those who are students of this Science should be loyal to Mrs. Eddy's teachings and instruction in every particular!

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