Editorial May 8, 1926 Issue

Individual Rights

Ella W. Hoag

All the world to-day is clamoring for its rights. Each one is very sure that he has rights which his neighbor is bound to respect; but is he always as sure that the same deference is due the rights of his neighbor? The main difficulty in human society at large is that there seems a tendency to look at questions from a narrow personal viewpoint. "Me and mine" loom so extensively on the horizon that "thee and thine" appear frequently to be blotted out of vision.

In the scientific Christianity which Jesus taught and demonstrated, and upon which Christian Science is shedding the glorious light of Truth, no such limited, selfish outlook can be sanctioned for an instant. In the Christ Science only one course can ever be permitted, namely, the seeking of one's own in his neighbor's good. Unselfishness, and unselfishness alone, reveals that divine government in which the rights of all men are universally safeguarded, because God's good will is universally done.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 106) Mrs. Eddy has written: "God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love." Here the entire subject of individual rights is epitomized by our revered Leader, and those who follow her teachings in this direction cannot fail to find their individual rights protected; and they will also find themselves delivered from all danger of trespassing on the rights of their neighbors.

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