Tolerant Firmness

George Shaw Cook

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in." Those were the words of one who was tolerant of others whose views differed from those entertained by him, but who was firm in his conviction of right as he saw it. Abraham Lincoln not only tolerated, but sought the advice of those who were personally and otherwise opposed to him. When President of the United States during the trying years of the Civil War, he surrounded himself with advisers who had little love for him, but to whose advice he listened patiently for the sake of the cause which they all upheld. This would seem to be an attitude which should characterize followers of the Christ.

Jesus, the master Christian, was pre-eminently kind, compassionate and tender, with the victims of sickness and sin who came to him for healing, but he did not hesitate to denounce the teachings and practices of the scribes and Pharisees. Of them he said, "They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."

Tolerance toward those who differ with one politically or religiously does not by any means require that one should accept their views or adopt their methods. Neither does tolerance toward persons who adhere to other platforms, creeds, faiths, or doctines mean that one agrees with or even tolerates any sort of erroneous teaching or system of teaching. We may be tolerant toward those who are the victims of error without in the least approving the error by which they are deceived. And certainly a right kind of tolerance does not make it necessary for one to call evil good.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, was most tolerant of those who opposed her teachings, and of those who continued to hold orthodox views either in medicine or in religion. However, she did not compromise with error or tolerate it in any of its phases. On page 129 of Science and Health she says, "Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in premise or conclusion."

The right attitude of Christian Scientists toward those whose teachings and practice differ from theirs is indicated very definitely by Mrs. Eddy as follows (ibid., p. 99): "Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism, or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is not with the individual, but with the false system."

Doctors of medicine, many of them firmly believing in the system of practice to which they adhere, are sometimes found to be intolerant of those who prefer to rely upon other means of healing. They have been known to seek through legislation and otherwise to impose their system of treating disease upon others. They have even sought legislation which would enable them legally to enter the homes of citizens for the purpose of determining the nature of their physical ailments, if any, and to dictate the method of treatment. Likewise they have sought, and sometimes obtained, legislation to make vaccination and inoculation compulsory. On the other hand, Christian Scientists, while believing their method of treatment to be demonstrably the Christ-method, would never think of trying to force others to adopt that method. They understand that this would be a violation of the Golden Rule, which would not succeed. Christian Science treatment is something which must be sought by the one in need of help.

Christian Scientists do not in the least object to medical doctors pursuing material means of healing in their effort to relieve human suffering, but they do object to all efforts to force medical treatment on those who prefer to exercise their God-given and constitutional rights to depend solely upon divine power for healing in times of illness. On this subject Mrs. Eddy writes (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 222): "The Constitution of the United States does not provide that materia medica shall make laws to regulate man's religion; rather does it imply that religion shall permeate our laws. Mankind will be God-governed in proportion as God's government becomes apparent, the Golden Rule utilized, and the rights of man and the libertyof conscience held sacred." Happily many states have, through amendment of their medical practice act, made it legally possible for those citizens who choose to do so to rely entirely upon spiritual means for healing. For these signs of enlightened progress in the direction of complete political and religious freedom, Christian Scientists are grateful.

George Shaw Cook

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