Article September 5, 1953 Issue

FIDELITY

ELROY C. ROBERTSON

Fidelity always involves an obligation. Hence the one who would achieve absolute fidelity in every phase of experience must be willing to assume whatever obligation may be necessary for attaining that end. Thus binding oneself to a specific course of action—and this is what an obligation implies—may entail severe trials of one's faithfulness, loyalty, and devotion. But the accompanying rewards of such endeavor are worth striving for and must sooner or later be sought by all, for fidelity is an inescapable requirement of those who would live true and Christian lives.

The prospect of such striving may present the argument that discharging whatever obligations fidelity imposes will be burdensome and exacting beyond endurance. If such is the case, it is comforting to realize that what is really required is a better understanding of God, and that in the degree that this understanding is attained, the achievement of fidelity is correspondingly less onerous. Willingness to hold thought steadfastly in line with God, good, listening for and faithfully following His direction, will ensure success.

In the story of Abraham, or Abram as he was first called, related in the twelfth and following chapters of Genesis, is found a wonderful illustration of the results obtainable by following divine direction. Abraham presumably lived very comfortably. Therefore the impulsion to leave all this and go out into an unknown land—to be subject to famine and peril in order to be true to his growing understanding of the one God, divine Spirit—showed his willingness to accept the obligations fidelity imposes. Defining Abraham in the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 579): "Abraham. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the eternal Principle of being. This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding."

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