Editorial November 3, 1951 Issue

SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING OF MORALITY

Helen Wood Bauman

Christian Science impels and protects sound morals. In fact, it explains the scientific basis of morality, showing that moral states of consciousness, such as chastity, honesty, affection, and freedom from covetousness, derive from divinity and hence are real and are to be safeguarded. When Mary Baker Eddy first discovered the spiritual law of healing, she often called it "Moral Science." She discovered the allness of good, found God to be the only source of good, and proved that sinlessness is the demonstrable birthright of every individual.

When one understands morality thus in Christian Science, his moral sense necessarily progresses toward the demonstration of man's absolute spirituality as the image of God. But when morality is left to intuition, without the explanation of the divine Principle which unfolds its scientific basis, the aggressive impositions of so-called mortal mind are likely to dull the edge of moral sensibility and cause it to degenerate. Everyone has a right to moral freedom, and Christian Science demonstrates the power of the Almighty to hold the character of man in the likeness of his Maker. Mrs. Eddy says in "The People's Idea of God" (p. 3). "Let us rejoice that the bow of omnipotence already spans the moral heavens with light, and that the more spiritual idea of good and Truth meets the old material thought like a promise upon the cloud, while it inscribes on the thoughts of men at this period a more metaphysical religion founded upon Christian Science."

When Moses gave the moral law to mankind, he added retributive measures for those who disobeyed it, and this was needed to awaken conscience and teach a primitive people to distinguish between right and wrong. Christ Jesus did not abolish the Commandments, but taught that they must be fulfilled in the spirit of love and righteousness. In this way the righteousness of his followers was to "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees" (Matt. 5:20). Not outward behavior, but inward love and purity were to determine individual obedience to the law of God. The Master's interpretation of law in terms of love greatly activated mankind's advance Spiritward. In our own time Christian Science hastens this advance even more, for it reveals man's absolute perfection as Mind's incorporeal idea, and through its demonstrations of the divine order of being, moral good merges into divine reality.

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