Editorial October 15, 1955 Issue

SELF-EXAMINATION AND THE BEAM

Harold Molter

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus deals with the subject of unfair criticism. He tells his hearers that if they judge others unfairly, they themselves will be subject to the same treatment. And then the Way-shower says (Matt. 7:3), "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" He advises the hearer to cast first the beam out of his own eye that he may see clearly enough to cast the mote out of his brother's eye.

This instruction of Jesus is of basic value to the Christian Scientist in his relation with his fellow men; it calls for self-examination on the part of the individual whenever he is tempted to criticize his neighbor. A mote is a small particle, perhaps of wood or dust. But a beam is a large timber, many times larger than the eye itself. The reference is significant in that the beam represents self-love or spiritual blindness. It is the fault which blinds the individual to his own shortcomings and prevents him from judging righteous judgment. It keeps him from helping his fellow men to overcome their faults.

The removal of the beams of selfishness and spiritual blindness in oneself and of the mote of lesser faults in others calls for constant and honest self-examination. In her book "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 355), "Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike 'the anointed,' and cast it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient's mind that makes his body sick, and remove it, and rest like the dove from the deluge." And she adds, "'Physician, heal thyself.'"

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