Article July 14, 1934 Issue

If We Live Rightly

GORDON V. COMER

Throughout the Bible are to be found statements which support the proposition that individual receptivity of good depends upon the moral rectitude of the petitioner. This is indicated in a verse from Psalms, "The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly;" in one from Proverbs, "Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved;" and in the statement made by Christ Jesus to the impotent man whom he had healed, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." In this admonition Jesus not only warned that sin hides ever present good, but also showed that many times difficulties are sins made manifest—conditions disguised as physical disorders, essentially unmoral conditions of thought, states of unrighteous thinking and living which must be uncovered and corrected.

Not all discord, however, is necessarily traceable to sin, for Christian Science teaches that fear and ignorance also cause and support the false claim of sickness. But because hidden or secret faults seem to be responsible for many difficulties in human experience, a person who has need for a clearer realization of the ever-presence of good can well give earnest consideration to that for which he is individually responsible—thinking and living rightly.

On this subject different persons reason in different ways. One may say, That is just the trouble; I am not good enough to be a Christian Scientist; or another may say, Why, I do live rightly, and still my problems are unsolved. To these extreme cases and to all intermediate ones, Christian Science replies, Know thyself. It does not say that when we grow to a certain standard of perfection we shall receive help. Rather does it say that when we are ready to turn to God with an honest heart this revelation of Christ, Truth, will come to us right where we are, and will help us, no matter what our problem may be. The only condition is that we must be honestly seeking and desiring the truth.

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