Editorial February 5, 1944 Issue

Receptivity

Evelyn F. Heywood

It can be said without likelihood of controversy that mankind is at the standpoint of receptivity. Every day, every hour, indeed every minute, mankind is receiving something of impressions, of suggestions, of instructions. The primary question is, To what is it receptive? What is the character, the source of its receptivity?

"Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?" queried Job. Hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling—the sense which inform men, which bring them pleasure or pain—are they intelligently guided, are they alert to what they receive, what reject? If men always tried their words—and back of them the thoughts whereby they are directed, alert to their influence and purpose, and to their own ability to accept what is true, to challenge what is evil—how different would be the world in which we live. Brought always to the judgment seat of Truth, tested by the canon of divine Principle, how blessed would be their receptivity, how sure its harvest of usefulness.

In the first chapter of John's Gospel, we read of the Christ that "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." Received him! This was what was demanded of men, that they should receive the Christ, and thereby sonship would be realized. But what was to be the nature of this receptivity? Mary Baker Eddy has defined it for us in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 182): "'As many as received him;' that is, as many as perceive man's actual existence in and of his divine Principle, receive the Truth of existence."

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