Article December 23, 1950 Issue

THE WAY OF MEEKNESS AND MIGHT

ROSE L. KEMPTHORNE

In an article entitled "The Way" in her "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy points to good healing and more of the spirit of Truth as requisites for genuine progress. She says (p. 355), "Less teaching and good healing is to-day the acme of 'well done;' a healing that is not guesswork,—chronic recovery ebbing and flowing,—but instantaneous cure." And she continues, "To consummate this desideratum, mortal mind must pass through three stages of growth." Then she enumerates these as self-knowledge, humility, and love.

The individual who is willing to face and overcome what appear to be his shortcomings will undoubtedly be more successful in solving human problems and growing Spiritward than one who apathetically ignores, self-righteously justifies, or willfully hides error. Our Leader admonishes (ibid., p. 154), "Never desert the post of spiritual observation and self-examination." It is significant that "spiritual observation" precedes "self-examination." Mere personal introspection pertains to the false concept of man, not to one's real selfhood. Therefore it can accomplish little of value, and it has sometimes led to self-condemnation, discouragement, and even despair. Observing oneself as in reality the sinless, diseaseless, deathless child of God enables one to deny and cast out all that is unlike Spirit, Truth.

To identify oneself as God's reflection is not only correct self-knowledge; it is divine meekness. It stills all strife resulting from personal egotism, human will, and sham humility and acknowledges the one infinite Ego, God, and His idea. True humility distinguished Christ Jesus. The Way-shower was found neither exalting nor depreciating himself; he was neither proud nor ashamed. He knew that both conceit and timidity hide man's true selfhood and forfeit spiritual might. He neither adulterated his purity nor weakened his power by indulging personal sense. Jesus was ever the servant of Truth. He claimed Spirit alone as his Ego. He exemplified man's coexistence with God, expressing all the attributes of Soul and silencing the demands of material sense. Repudiating manmade ritual and superstitious beliefs, he enforced the inexorable laws of divine Principle, Love. He illustrated divinity through annulling the lie of mortality. His method was not a laborious struggle toward Truth, but continuous, joyous awareness of man's present spiritual being as the son of God.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

GRATITUDE, THE APPROACH TO GOD