Article January 29, 1966 Issue

Righteousness Provides Safety

JANE H. NEWMAN

"What am I to receive for being good? What is good? what is righteousness?" Such questions reveal an ignorance of God, an ignorance of divine good and its rewarding and protecting laws. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who came to teach men righteousness, must have found such conditions of thought, which caused him to say (John 17:25), "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee."

Righteousness is of God. Acquaintance with God brings it to human view. It is the reflection of good, God. To be righteous is to be Godlike in all our ways. To be Godlike is to express God's intelligence, His goodness, His love. The mind of one who chooses good and rejects evil becomes filled with good, becomes pure, Godlike. Goodness is transparent. Through it one sees God, man's divine source of good. If one chooses evil, it blinds him to God, shuts out God's goodness from his experience.

Through demonstrating righteousness, which is our true heritage, we become aware of and receive God's blessings. God bestows dominion upon man, His likeness. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, interprets the third sentence of the Lord's Prayer in these words (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 17): "Enable us to know,—as in heaven, so on earth,—God is omnipotent, supreme." A realization of this divine truth brings God's dominion to earth; and such prayer is answered in proportion to our righteousness. Goodness brings human life into focus with God. Through it God's care and power become known to us, to guide us, to enrich us, and to preserve us.

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