Editorial June 18, 1927 Issue

Loyalty

Duncan Sinclair

The Christian Scientist not infrequently stops to ask himself the meaning of the word "loyalty." It is well that he should do so; for clear definitions of mental conditions are highly desirable, in that they are valuable in determining right conduct. Mrs. Eddy was in no doubt as to the meaning of loyalty as applied to Christian Scientists. She writes in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 50): "By loyalty in students I mean this,—allegiance to God, subordination of the human to the divine, steadfast justice, and strict adherence to divine Truth and Love." And a better definition never was given of a word which every genuine Christian Scientist delights to honor.

It is obvious that to be loyal, after the manner just described, the first requisite is knowledge of God. How, otherwise, could one give his allegiance to God? Here the Christian Scientist is on firm ground. Christian Science has revealed to him the true nature of God. It has shown him that God is infinite as Love, Life, Truth, and good. In other words, it has made known to him the truth that God is altogether adorable. And once he has been convinced of the perfection of God, he sees evil as unreal; and then he understands that the way of salvation for all mankind lies in their being able through spiritual understanding to distinguish between good and evil—the real and the unreal—and to discard the evil or the unreal. Thus, when the student thinks of God, he is satisfied; and loyalty follows.

How easy it is to be loyal to God when He is correctly understood! How easy also, with this understanding, to carry our loyalty farther by distinguishing the human from the divine and subordinating the former to the latter; and how far-reaching is this phase of loyalty! In everyday life one is continually being presented with problems whose solution depends on one's power to distinguish between the divine and the so-called human. Every form of suffering is a human experience, not a divine fact. To get rid of suffering —the false belief of suffering, that is, for suffering is never real, since it is unknown to God—the divine fact of man's harmonious state as God's perfect idea must be realized. And the result—the overcoming of the suffering—is the reward of loyalty to God.

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