Editorial October 14, 1961 Issue

Our Social Responsibilities

Helen Wood Bauman

Cain, metaphorically representing the carnal mind, is pictured in the fourth chapter of Genesis as posing a question of great import to humanity. He asks (verse 9), "Am I my brother's keeper?" Mary Baker Eddy comments on this question on page 541 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She explains it as a form of the same serpentine lie that suggested to Eve, "Ye shall be as gods" (Gen. 3:5). Mrs. Eddy says, "Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards his brother."

Christian Scientists feel a particular duty toward their fellow men, because they know that they have been entrusted with spiritual truths that will liberate all mankind from the terrible scourge of mortality. Their acknowledgment of these truths involves a moral responsibility to help waken the world to the facts of man's perfection as God's spiritual image and the universal government of divine law as always present and demonstrable.

The responsibility of bringing the saving truths of divine Science to the race is the highest kind of responsibility, for it demands the greatest self-sacrifice—far greater than do tasks involving social projects and civic enterprises, which remain on a material level. The Christian Scientist is dedicated to a way of spiritual worship that does not include material methods. His energies are needed in the perfecting of his branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and the advancing of its healing activities.

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