Editorial October 16, 1948 Issue

HOW POOR ARE WE?

John Randall Dunn

"Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God." Thus does the Gospel of Luke (6:20) record a remarkable utterance of Christ Jesus. Could it be that the Master was commending pauperism? Certainly this was not the thought of that Teacher who later in the same discourse said that if his students sought first the kingdom of God, all needful things would be added unto them. Matthew's recording of the statement of Jesus is perhaps clearer (Matt. 5:3), "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Who does not enjoy the friendship of one truly poor in spirit, one poor, or modest, in his estimate of his own accomplishments, and ever hungry for more spiritual light? Mary Baker Eddy in her "Miscellaneous Writings" makes this enlightening statement about the poor. She says (p. 168) that "to the poor—the lowly in Christ, not the man-made rabbi—the gospel is preached." Blessed indeed are "the lowly in Christ," who recognize the poverty of material sense and its counterfeit blandishments and are become ardent seekers after real or spiritual treasure.

The wise Seneca in one of his Epistulae makes this pithy observation: "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." May not this describe the mentality of those students of Science who long for that understanding of the Christ which will enable them to do better and quicker healing? With what joy do Christian Science practitioners welcome the opportunity to do metaphysical work for the truly "poor in spirit"—those whose thought has been emptied of worldly concepts, fears, and trusts! Speaking of such thinkers, Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 450), "They are sincere, generous, noble, and are therefore open to the approach and recognition of Truth." Then she adds pertinently, "To teach Christian Science to such as these is no task."

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