Editorial August 2, 1924 Issue

Partisanship with Good

Albert F. Gilmore

Men, it seems, are by nature partisan. For good reasons or bad they ally themselves with some cause, promoting certain beliefs, theories, philosophies, and situations, and as partisans of the movement with which they choose to identify themselves, become its zealous adherents, its earnest supporters. The degree of devotion to a given course becomes commensurate with the intensity of one's conviction.

How important it is, then, that the cause one espouses be worthy of one's support! Otherwise, his consecrated service might retard and obstruct the advancement of good, might even delay the coming of God's kingdom into the affairs of men,—results precisely the opposite of what he most desires. The first necessity, manifestly, is for the individual to determine the right course, selecting, perhaps, from among several situations that which seems to approach nearest to the canons of righteousness which the individual has sought for his standard.

To be sure of one's motive, that it is worthy and sound, is an important preliminary step. In this determination it should never be lost sight of that only as one is allied with good and desires to bring into human experience a larger manifestation of right and justice is he deserving of success in promoting his chosen cause. If adventuring along the ways of evil, he is defeated before he starts; for an evil course, chosen from wrong motives and pursued with a selfish aim, can but result in disaster. Such a course never advances one a furlong on the journey from material sense to spiritual understanding, which Christian Scientists so well know every one must make.

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