Goodness and Greatness

Ella W. Hoag

Most men have desired greatness, but comparatively few have realized that only that is great which is good,—that goodness alone results in greatness. When David declared, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty," he indicated very clearly that to God belongs all greatness. Man, therefore, can only express greatness as he reflects it from God. Since every quality of God is good, these qualities must all be as great as they are good, and one's own expression of greatness can appear only in proportion to his demonstration of goodness.

It is quite unnecessary, then, for men to seek greatness. Indeed, to seek it would be to fall short of attaining it. Greatness is an effect, and effects are only brought about through the activity of causes. Hence, it is the cause that must be sought; and in the degree that a true cause is recognized and obeyed, the effect will be resultingly true. Like cause, like effect, is a truism that mankind is often slow to accept; for the world is given over to dealing with effects, hoping that by working for and with them it may mold everything to its own satisfaction. Not starting with a right cause, it is constantly finding itself confronted with unfortunate effects; and then it attempts, by considering them and them alone, to deliver itself from its disasters.

Christian Science, however, shows the absolute futility of any such method. In its basic teaching that God is the one and only cause and that no effects can in reality proceed from any other cause, it lays the ax at the root of the belief that any right results can ever be brought about by working with effects. Who would expect to gain mathematical knowledge by manipulating answers to problems? In the same way, it would be useless to attempt to win right effects in any direction without finding and working in conformity with the right cause.

It is therefore necessary for men to seek the understanding and demonstration of universal goodness, if they would win the reflection of greatness which comes alone from God, the infinite good. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 270) our Leader tells us that "the pathway of goodness and greatness runs through the modes and methods of God." One surely ought not to hesitate to walk in such a pathway. Since God is all good, His modes and methods can contain only good; they must conform absolutely to the one perfect cause. They are therefore constituted only of that which is desirable, and to live in accordance with them must be in itself a blissful undertaking. Thus to obey the one and only cause, the right effect must follow,—the effect of goodness and greatness.

While this is the only goal worth journeying towards, and while the pathway is safe and sure, to the human sense it is not always an easy one, for the modes and methods of God make large demands upon mortals, even complete loyalty to God and the consequent surrender of all that is unlike the one divine cause. A wise man once wrote: "The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; ... who is calmest in storms and most fearless under menace and frowns; and whose reliance on truth, on virtue and on God, is most unfaltering."

It is Christian Science which alone can render such greatness possible. God's modes and methods, as revealed therein, are the certain pathway to such accomplishment. Studying them in order to understand the perfect cause, our good God, learning therein to live in obedience to Him, we find it possible to choose "the right with invincible resolution;" to resist every temptation—both from within and without—to believe in any power or presence apart from God; to continue calm and unmoved whatever the mental storm; to be fearless in spite of all the supposititious threatenings of evil; and above all to rely absolutely and unfalteringly on Truth, God.

As we thus understand and obey the perfect cause we shall find perfect effects resulting; for there will be brought into evidence the truth of our beloved Leader's statement in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 331), where she writes, "Abiding in Truth, the warmth and sunlight of prayer and praise and understanding will ripen the fruits of Spirit, and goodness will have its springtide of freedom and greatness."

Ella W. Hoag

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Notes from the Publishing House

November 8, 1924

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