Article April 26, 1924 Issue

"Lookers-on"

FRANCES PORTER

On page 37 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our Leader says, "Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; but not amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated by lookers-on." The writer had often read this passage, but always with the thought that the "lookers-on" were those outside of the Christian Science movement; it had never occurred to her that she herself might be a looker-on. It was with a great flood of light that another meaning of the phrase came to her. The occasion was a Wednesday evening testimony meeting. The First Reader had included this passage in his reading; and with the reading came the illumination that the "lookers-on" could not see or appreciate merit "amid the smoke of battle." To be merely looking on, instead of working with a brother Scientist, would debar them from the privilege of seeing and appreciating merit; and to see merit in another is to see God's reflection.

Our brother may be having a hard fight with his. own wrong sense, or may be standing in one of the most difficult posts in the movement. Are we fellow-soldiers in Christ's army working with him, giving him the support of our right thinking, seeing and appreciating the merit of the overcoming he is doing, the stand he is making; or are we merely "lookers-on," with the cold, critical eye of one who does not consider himself interested in the result of the demonstration?

Where would the armies of the world have been if those whose duty it was to supply them with ammunition or food had stood around looking on instead of doing their part; or what use would the ammunition have been if the soldiers at the front had looked on instead of using it? But no; as it is written in Ezekiel, "their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward." In a great army each has his place to fill, his share of the work to do; and to cease doing that, in order to look on and criticize another, is to prolong the war if not to lose it altogether.

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