Editorial September 8, 1923 Issue

Well-doing

Ella W. Hoag

All men desire to achieve. From the veriest child to the adult of advanced years there is nearly always apparent the wish to be doing, to be accomplishing. Nothing is more contrary to right living than the sense of inaction. So true is this that laziness and indolence, idleness and stupor are held as abnormal and unnatural conditions, and all right-minded individuals look upon them as undesirable and repellent. Admitted that all men naturally desire to express activity, to be doing something, what is the law which will result in freedom for them constantly to achieve properly, constantly to accomplish that which is worthy and of advantage to the world at large as well as to themselves?

There is only one right law of activity and that is the law of divine Love. Only that which acts in obedience to Love can ever result properly or make it possible for any one to accomplish anything that is of value for himself or others. It seems difficult for mankind to grasp this simple fact,—that to have perfect results Love must be the foundation for all action. Many have believed they could achieve much through starting from all sorts of inferior motives. They have believed that such base purposes as pride and human ambition could bring about worthy accomplishment; even jealousy and hate have been looked upon as spurs to satisfactory achievement.

How false and mistaken is such belief may readily be seen from the viewpoint of Christian Science, which takes the unequivocal position that since good alone is real, and since like cause, like effect, then only that which starts with good can end with good. We therefore come right back to the necessary starting point, that obedience to the law of divine Love alone can result in right achievement. Then, if men ever fail to accomplish the good they desire, they need only to see where and how they are failing to love.

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