Article September 24, 1932 Issue

Motives

JOHN RALPH GRIFFITH

MOTIVE largely determines the quality and nature of every thought and deed. The impelling influence in all situations is born of thought and is motivated by some kind of desire. One seeks those things which he values, whether they be good or bad, and he thereby reveals his motives. The work of a Christian Scientist, like that of the Master, Christ Jesus, is to help men to understand and appreciate the things of Spirit, so that their interests and attractions shall become spiritual. As one's affections grow Spiritward, his acts will be inclined thus, and he will then work with truer and better motives.

It is of interest and value to know that the Master worked always with spiritual motives. At the early age of twelve, sitting in the temple with the learned doctors, asking them questions and listening to them, Jesus asked of those who came to take him home, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" His constant adherence to spiritual law revealed the righteousness of his purpose and achievement. This fact reveals to us that whatever is done intelligently, in conformity with God's law and expression, is motivated and supported by His law. Therefore right motives and their effects cannot die.

During the period between the cessation of spiritual healing as taught by Jesus and the discovery of Christian Science, which restored his teachings and their effects, human interests were in the main directed along the line of material research and experimentation; and the human family in general has wandered in the darkness of ignorance of God in search of a way to escape from the fears and tragedies of its own miscreating

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