Article September 15, 1945 Issue

Self-Knowledge, Humility, and Love

GERTRUDE BEUTEL

In admonishing her students to strive to do better healing, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 355), "To consummate this desideratum, mortal mind must pass through three stages of growth." These three stages she designates as self-knowledge, humility, and love.

Self-knowledge is not a constant searching of human consciousness for error, while perhaps one lives in a state of more or less perpetual self-condemnation; neither is it a complacent attitude of thought which concerns itself only with the acceptance of good, ignoring entirely the rejection of evil. Rather is it the result of adopting as one's guide and standard the "Daily Prayer" given us by our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 4): "'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!"

Then should some unforeseen circumstance disclose an undesirable trait of human character which the student thought had been overcome, he will not be dismayed, but rather will he rejoice over this opportunity to "cast out the beam" from his own eye, that he may see more clearly the mote that is obstructing the vision of some brother who may come to him for healing.

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