Editorial March 1, 1924 Issue

Motives

Ella W. Hoag

Perhaps nothing is more necessary to successful endeavor than the possession of right motives. "What makes life dreary is the want of motive," says a wise writer; and there are probably few mortals who have not tasted the unhappiness resulting from such lack. To be without motive is to find one's self at the mercy of every wind that blows, tossed mentally hither and yon by each conflicting opinion human belief may present; and it is to live an apparently purposeless, aimless existence, subject to all sorts of heart-rending vicissitudes.

If one is conscious of possessing a definite motive, he is immediately aware of an impelling incentive to work towards a positive end. Motives always imply aims; but in the motives themselves are the "springs of action;" and therefore only as they are carefully considered and made pure can right aims be fulfilled in the attainment of true results. Since motives are what move one to action,—indeed they may be said to govern all action,—it must be conceded that their nature should be thoroughly understood. Human belief classifies them as good or bad, right or wrong, unselfish or selfish; and because they propel us in their own direction, it is most important that we should know just what sort we are accepting and entertaining.

One step in the way of right endeavor is taken when we recognize that if we are to progress at all we must have a definite motive; also that no activity can go forward which is not thus actuated. In "Christian Healing" (p. 7) our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, tells us: "The Science of Christianity makes pure the fountain, in order to purify the stream. It begins in mind to heal the body, the same as it begins in motive to correct the act, and through which to judge of it;" and in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 232) she points for all time to the most exalted of motives, when she writes, "The unerring and fixed Principle of all healing is God; and this Principle should be sought from the love of good, from the most spiritual and unselfish motives."

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