Editorial September 27, 1930 Issue

Demonstrating Qualities

Clifford P. Smith

The practice of Christian Science can be regarded as demonstrating the qualities of true being—those which really belong to God and man. "Our system of Mind-healing," says Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 460), "rests on the apprehension of the nature and essence of all being,—on the divine Mind and Love's essential qualities." And in the same book (p. 475) she declares further that man "has not a single quality underived from Deity." The Christian Scientist, therefore, is engaged in discerning and proving the qualities derived from divine Principle and in refusing to manifest the attributes of error.

Although an attribute and a quality can be regarded as the same, "quality" is the better word for the present purpose. A quality is a characteristic or property; it is that which makes a being or thing such as it is. An attribute is a quality assigned to a being or thing. Thus, while an attribute may, a quality must, express something of the real nature of that to which it is ascribed. This distinction, taken from the Practical Standard Dictionary and the Winston Simplified Dictionary, is a recent usage and is not imperative. "Attribute," "characteristic," "property," "quality" are still available to be correctly used as synonyms, and "faculty" is a similar word. All of these terms can help to enlarge our view of the present subject, and all of them are to be found in Mrs. Eddy's writings.

Then, what are the qualities of God and man? What are the characteristics and properties of the Principle of all being? What are the attributes and faculties given by the divine Mind to the individual consciousness, man? The answers to these questions furnish the basis for the practice of the religion which is both Christian and Science. And what are the seeming qualities of error? What characteristics does it seemingly impart or offer to the human self? These questions, also, pertain to the practice of divine metaphysics. In regard to both aspects of this subject, as in all else, we can learn from Jesus. As Mrs. Eddy has said (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 199): "We learn somewhat of the qualities of the divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it gave him over the qualities opposed to Spirit which mortals name matter."

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