Article April 5, 1930 Issue

Glorifying God

EDNA LUCILE QUILLIN

The First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is much broader in scope of meaning than may be realized upon first consideration. When we speak of the worship of gods, a mental picture probably arises of an image of wood or stone before which mortals bow, a practice commonly attributed to the spiritually unillumined. When, however, we meditate upon the meaning of "gods" in a broader sense, we see that to a greater or less extent all mankind is bowing down to false gods in one form or another. Through the teachings of Christian Science the obscurity surrounding such tendencies, all too often unknown to the one expressing them, is destroyed. The "gods" are exposed as false, and cast out of our mental house.

A tendency common in our day of enlightenment is the exaltation of persons whose achievements, superior to our own, we may not understand, and to whom we therefore attribute a power which we believe we do not possess. A President guiding a nation through troublous times, a statesman, a religious leader, and others, including even consecrated practitioners of Christian Science may be thus mistakenly glorified by those benefiting from their ministrations.

In an article, "Personal Contagion," in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 116): "In time of religious or scientific prosperity, certain individuals are inclined to cling to the personality of its leader. This state of mind is sickly; it is a contagion—a mental malady, which must be met and overcome."

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