Article November 15, 1969 Issue

Always Right

ELOISE PATTILLO HENDRICK

The feeling that one is always right about everything is an undesirable human characteristic. It makes people try to have the last word; it fosters superiority and intolerance; and it even leads to warfare. Clearly this self-righteousness is a distortion of the demand for perfection voiced by Christ Jesus, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." ^{Matt. 5:48;}

Through Christian Science one can put off self-righteousness by learning progressively to subjugate and destroy all the false claims of a finite, personal sense of self as a fallible mortal, stubborn or confused. Acknowledging that man is, in reality, the reflection of God, good, and consequently as perfect as God, is the key to overcoming all obstacles to perfection. Proving the Rightness, or righteousness, of man as God's perfect, spiritual child requires much patience and perseverance.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Universal salvation rests on progression and probation, and is unattainable without them. Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in possession of 'the mind of the Lord,' as the Scripture says." ^{Science and Health, p. 291;}