Article May 13, 1922 Issue

The Reward of Righteousness

WILLIAM P. MC KENZIE

In a state well regulated those who do well are not deprived of the results and rewards of right doing. If, as husbandmen, they patiently labor with fruit tree and vine, then at the time of harvest they are partakers of the yield of orchard and vineyard. What they sow, they reap; and the increase of flocks and herds rewards them for the season's care and their labor in field and pasture. But where lawlessness prevails, it would seem for a time that they who do ill are rewarded. They reap where others have sown; they rob the pastures and folds. It is as Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." Where law is established, and law keepers are united and courageous, the bandit and the brigand soon find that the thief's trade is unprofitable. And so should it be in the realm of thinking. The right thinker should have his reward of peace and comfort; and the scornful man and the slanderer should not be able to deprive him of his reward.

Too often the effort to do good is personal and accompanied by pride. The evil-doer, likewise, has pride in his way; and by the very force of his unscrupulousness may gather in for a time the results of the good man's personal labors. Then he will contend that selfishness succeeds; and the disappointed victim of the robbery is tempted to say that fair dealing spells failure, and that kindness is unrewarded. This is not so, and it is needful to learn how to win and make sure the reward of righteousness, so that law may be regarded and God honored among men.

Paul makes a list of the malign activities of erring minds, naming them "works of the flesh," and contrasting them with the "fruit of the Spirit." So, then, it is the boast of mortal so-called minds that they can rob others, cheat and cozen them, and lie to them, and get a result therefrom that is desirable. Mrs. Eddy, like Paul, draws a startling contrast between this claim of material sense and the actual facts regarding Spirit and its reward, and speaks kindly to those whom she is instructing, when she says on page 253 of "Science and Health with key to the Scriptures": "I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the understanding of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed harmony,—that, as you read, you see there is no cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense which is not power) able to make you sick or sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense."

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