Editorial June 1, 1946 Issue

Self-Government Is God's Government

Paul Stark Seeley

When you and I are tempted to put on a display of bad temper, to indulge in unjust criticism, to yield to sin, or in any other way to let our thoughts and acts be governed by the godless material mind, the opposite of God, we have then and there an opportunity to put into effect true self-government. The opportunity is ours to prove to ourselves, and to others, that individual being is self-governed when individual thought accepts the government of its primal and ever-present cause—the sovereign Mind, or Principle, which men have named God. This government of man by divine Mind, recognized and realized in some degree by you and me, neutralizes bad temper with kindness, unjust criticism with justice, and a leaning toward sin with a love of godliness.

One of the most hopeful signs in human affairs is the demand of subject races that their right to what is generally thought of as self-government be accorded them. Political, racial, and other considerations may offer complications; the first steps may be far from satisfying. But this basic right of the individual to self-government is becoming more generally recognized, and the demand becomes increasingly articulate that steps be taken to accord all peoples facilities for self-expression as to the form of human government they desire. Reviewing the work of the first meeting of the United Nations Assembly, a prominent delegate cited as an important, positive step the adoption, by unanimous approval of the nations, of a resolution recognizing the right of self-government for all of earth's peoples.

Today the meaning of self-government is in the bud. It is usually conceived to mean the right of national groups freely to choose their form of government and their respective lawmakers and rulers. With the progress of mankind self-government will come to full bloom and be found to be the right of the individual to be governed by his Maker, by God, deific Mind, the beneficent sovereign of all consciousness, whose prerogative forever is to constitute, maintain, and govern man individually and collectively.

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