Editorial December 28, 1929 Issue

Loving the Stranger

Violet Ker Seymer

A Stranger is not necessarily an individual with whom one is unacquainted, but one who is known only superficially and is being judged according to appearances. Such a stranger may be one whom some phase of evil has seemed to estrange from his birthright of health, purity, and lovableness. He may feel himself a pariah among the elect, although secretly yearning for betterment. It is perhaps this type that Moses had in thought when he said, "Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Is not every individual still in need of purging out the old dark beliefs of materiality?

Every Christian Scientist realizes that he cannot raise his own standard by deploring the lack of standard in another. His quest, as he moves among his fellows, is not directed toward discerning the evil but the good in every individual, the glint of divinity which is assuredly there. Lynx-eyed to behold the slightest aspiration after goodness, he does not sit "in the seat of the scornful," but of the merciful. The Christian Scientist never ignores or condones evil; yet he does not acknowledge it as real, but regards sin as a cloud between the individual and the impartial "Sun of righteousness" with "healing in his wings."

While Christian Science does not descend into the byways of sin in search of sinners to reform, it teaches that the hand of divine Love is always outstretched to succor each one who reaches up for it, even though it be from the lowest depths of degradation; for did not Christ Jesus say, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance"? Repentance is often a reserved plant, faintly budding in a dark corner and needing but the light of divine Love to call forth the full flower of reform.

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