Editorial February 14, 1925 Issue

Modesty

Albert F. Gilmore

IT is doubtful if any other phase of Jesus' character makes stronger appeal to the student of the four gospels than his innate modesty. Endowed with spiritual power above all others, the Nazarene never arrogated to himself personal superiority; he never exalted himself. On the contrary, when the wondering multitude would have worshiped him, invariably he pointed to God, the Father, as the doer of the works, as the source of all good. His assertion, "I can of mine own self do nothing," could have left in the minds of his auditors no doubt as to his entire freedom from conceit or from any desire to exploit himself. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," was spoken not of the human Jesus but from his understanding as the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, the great demonstrator of God's healing power. Modesty and humility continually marked the career of this mightiest of men. Are not these qualities, so perfectly exemplified in the life of the Founder of Christianity, worthy of emulation by all who would call themselves Christians?

In addition to the high example of the Master, Christian Scientists have constantly before them both the words and the works of Mrs. Eddy to inspire them to like demonstration. So convinced of the value of modesty as a Christian virtue was our Leader that she declared in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 94), "I am persuaded that only by the modesty and distinguishing affection illustrated in Jesus' career, can Christian Scientists aid the establishment of Christ's kingdom on the earth." That is to say, Christian Scientists cannot do their work as Christians without the modesty and affection so perfectly illustrated in the career of the Master. How important does our Leader make the qualities of modesty and affection! Without them Christianity could not be established, and the Christian church would fail!

Christian Scientists are awake to the need for that self-abnegation which minimizes the sense of personal capability and accomplishment, because they recognize that all reality, power, and capability inhere in the divine Mind. Learning of the omnipotence and omniscience of God and of the falsity of any other claim to power or reality, Christian Scientists lose the desire to exploit and exaggerate a selfhood which at its best has no reality, no true existence. The acknowledgment of God as the only good, as the source of all being and expression, leaves no place for pride in personal endowment, possession, or attainment. "Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out," declared a French savant of the seventeenth century. But since all true merit has its source in God,—is the reflection of qualities which inhere in God,—there is nothing in merit which should cause boastfulness or conceit.

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