Editorial August 4, 1934 Issue

Vital Honesty

Violet Ker Seymer

Honesty is a searching quality, "providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men." Honesty, as it is generally interpreted, "in the sight of men" is a moral sense which enables one to detect and reject what are acknowledged to be unjust and wrong practices. Needless to say, scrupulous honesty and honor in all matters of finance and business, moral codes and social relations, are indispensable, for without them blind humanity would be wrecked.

Then there is the higher honesty which is the foe of imperfection in thought, motive, word, and deed because the basis of this honesty "in the sight of the Lord," as understood in Christian Science, is nothing less than complete loyalty to God, divine Principle. The Apostle Paul was suffering from a perverted sense of honesty when he persecuted the early Christians. But when, through higher honesty "in the sight of the Lord," scales fell from his eyes, a tremendous mental readjustment took place in him, and later on he wrote to the converts in Rome: "Let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day." To persecute anything which is genuinely good may therefore be unrecognized dishonesty.

"The armour of light" is the defense of spiritual understanding—the understanding of perfect God and perfect man which Christian Science imparts. Spiritual understanding equips one to do the healing works of Christianity, to destroy conditions labeled incurable by those who accept material sense testimony as veritable, and to take away false burdens through the exalting influence of divine Love, which imposes none. With increased spiritual understanding comes increased honesty—exacting and imperative. Sometimes the first step taken in this higher line of honesty proves to be laying off the burden of sickness, because sickness as well as sin is always contrary to God's will. Christian Science enables us to face joyously the task of overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil through spiritual understanding. Thereby the Master's command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," becomes a vital and liberating influence.

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