Editorial June 1, 1940 Issue

Allegiance

EVELYN F. HEYWOOD

"In the dark hours, wise Christian Scientists stand firmer than ever in their allegiance to God. Wisdom is wedded to their love, and their hearts are not troubled," writes Mary Baker Eddy on pages 276 and 277 of "Miscellaneous Writings." No one ever proved the truth of this statement more consistently than did its writer. Her allegiance to God during the times of greatest difficulty and darkness was a continual inspiration to her followers. Many are the recorded and numberless the unrecorded incidents of her steadfastness, confidence, and serenity in the face of persecution and attack, her intrepid renewal of initiative and vigor after each setback or temporary reversal. Her allegiance to that which she knew to be the source and enforcement of what must finally prevail did not waver. Not only was her heart untroubled; it seemed braced to even greater love and energy, the more bitter and ruthless the opposition to her Cause. And the reason for this we know was that in her allegiance to Principle she permitted no traitor doubts or fears, no whispering, no undermining suggestions of timidity, of pusillanimity, of self-preservation to slacken her purpose or divert her intent. She might have quoted on her own behalf the words of Paul to the Philippians, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."

The Christian Scientist knows that true allegiance is not affected or influenced by personal relationships, for it is a quality of Mind. Mrs. Eddy has linked it with wisdom and love. It knows nothing of blind leadership or unquestioning obedience to human dictates. Its effectiveness is equivalent to its loyalty to every gleam of good, wherever found; its steadfast repudiation of all means or methods which are evil; its consistent allegiance to that which has God as its source and guide.

In allegiance to Principle there can be no fear of disillusionment, no danger of betrayal. For in Science it is not a question of loyalty or disloyalty to persons, but of unswerving loyalty to that which is true in all individual and collective undertakings. When this is realized, men will no longer fear being separated from that which they believe to be good; they will know that their confidence in the accomplishment of good depends not on persons, but upon individual adherence to Principle. With this realization there will come, whatever the material evidence—the rising and falling of human leadership, the fluctuation of defeat and victory—the certainty of Truth's triumph. When wisdom and love are thus divinely wedded, the heart is not troubled, the vision is not dimmed. In this allegiance to Principle, which is also Love, the Christian Scientist, while he admits no loyalty to persons as such, remains consistently loyal in his thought and action to compassion and patience, to tolerance and justice, which are the outcome of Love. He is not called upon at any time to condone or support evil. Truth forbids any such deflection. But he will protect and preserve, in friend or seeming foe, any element of good which manifests itself. Allegiance to Love rules out all harsh or even careless criticism; it links the noble, the selfless, the courageous, wherever found, in the determination to join the heavenly hosts in their warfare against evil.

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