Article July 17, 1954 Issue

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST: HUMANITARIAN

DOROTHY S. RADER

In the Manual of The Mother Church, Mary Baker Eddy makes this statement (Art. VIII, Sect. 22): "A Christian Scientist is a humanitarian; he is benevolent, forgiving, long-suffering, and seeks to overcome evil with good." Our Leader's words call for action, action of thought as well as of deed. They demand that we put love into expression, that we be good Samaritans in the highest sense of this term.

Our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, was the greatest humanitarian the world has ever known. Following in his footsteps, Mrs. Eddy labored tirelessly, unselfishly, patiently, for the salvation of the world from sin, disease, and death. It was not enough that she had found healing for herself through the illumination of thought that came by reading of the healing of the palsied man (Matt. 9:2–8); she must share her great discovery of the undeviating law of spiritual healing with all mankind.

What was the foundation of the compassion which was expressed by Jesus, and which our beloved Leader emulated? It was the spiritual understanding of man's immortality as God's reflection—Mind's idea, Love's radiant expression— and of man's constant unity with God. They knew God as Father-Mother, as the tender Shepherd, as Life, Truth, and all-embracing divine Love. They naturally included all humanity in their loving thought, demonstrating true charity. They understood man, the full and perfect expression of God, to be whole, to be free, to be normal in all of his activity as idea, and to be joyous. They rose above the mist of materialism to unveil the Christ, Truth, understanding how God reveals Himself to men, resurrecting them from limiting beliefs to "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21).

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