Editorial December 1, 1951 Issue

RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT

Robert Ellis Key

Someone has said that criticism is "a public acknowledgment of one's inability to see the Christ." If this statement were made our own, it would be a deterrent to destructive thought and careless comparison. Christian Scientists wish to be Christlike, and the practice of Christian Science makes it essential to be so. Mary Baker Eddy taught her followers to emphasize the good and minimize the evil. She did so because she discovered God to be synonymous with good; therefore by voicing good, by living good, and by loving good we express God. This is true worship, or divine service.

In "Miscellaneous Writings." Mrs. Eddy says (p. 206), "The real Christian Scientist is constantly accentuating harmony in word and deed, mentally and orally, perpetually repeating this diapason of heaven: 'Good is my God, and my God is good. Love is my God, and my God is Love.'" When taking this firm and positive stand for good, the Scientist does not ignore evil, as is claimed by some critics; rather, he knows that a consciousness filled with good cannot at the same time think or voice evil. The Christ, being God's manifestation, or expression, must of necessity be wholly good, without an element of evil; therefore it follows that he who is most Christlike is the one to whom good is natural and habitual and who looks for good and finds it in every circumstance. In home life, in church work, in business relationships, we can always be alive to the ever-presence of good and thus exclude evil.

A critical attitude may come from misunderstanding, or perhaps from disappointed hopes or a too personal viewpoint. The tendency to criticize should be checked in the same way that a tendency to any sinful habit is checked. Constructive criticism or righteous judgment, however, is always helpful. The one who would help another to improve his position must build upon what he has and not upon what he has not. St. Paul writes (II Cor. 8:12), "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not."

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