Speaking of People

The doorman knew everyone who worked in the office building, but not always by name. When asked if he had seen Miss Green come in, he didn't know, so the inquirer began to describe her—her height, weight, and the color of her hair. "Oh, you mean that lovely lady who always has such a nice smile. Whatever the weather, she says 'Good morning' as though she really means it." The description fitted Miss Green exactly. At once they knew they were referring to the same person and were happy to think together of the good she expressed.

The way we think and speak of people is very important. The identity of man is actually spiritual, not material. Yet if we are not watchful, all too often we find ourselves describing someone in physical terms—and frequently in not particularly complimentary ones—instead of in ways that show we see his true identity in the good, spiritual qualities he expresses, and recognize that any negative physical or mental traits we may notice are false.

Christ Jesus recommended to his followers, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." ^{John 7:24 ;} We can hardly think of him as describing someone as "the man with the withered hand" or "the woman taken in adultery." Though he recognized the needs of those who came to him, through his Christly ability to discern true, spiritual being he looked beyond the false concept of man and woman as imperfect mortals to see their actual identities as reflections of divine Principle, Love. It was by means of this correct identification that he elevated people's thought of themselves and healed them of both physical and moral disabilities.

Christian Science shows that "righteous judgment" is judgment based in spiritual consciousness. When applied to people, it involves us in discerning in them the qualities they derive from divine Principle. These qualities constitute the substance of their true, Godlike identity as Mind's reflection, and we see them through spiritual rather than physical sense.

The fact is, man is not a corporeal being. He is spiritual idea. Mrs. Eddy writes: "A material human likeness is the antipode of man in the image and likeness of God. Hence, a finite person is not the model for a metaphysician." And she continues, "I earnestly advise all Christian Scientists to remove from their observation or study the personal sense of any one, and not to dwell in thought upon their own or others' corporeality, either as good or evil." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 308-309 ;}

It requires constant watchfulness over our thoughts and speech to break the common human habit of identifying ourselves and others according to the evidence of the senses. But the ability to remove from observation the corporeal sense of anyone grows with practice, and one's successful efforts to do so and to grasp instead the true view of individuals as spiritual children of divine Principle will be richly rewarded by healing.

We all have constant opportunity to sharpen our ability to "judge righteous judgment." A member of a Church of Christ, Scientist, can do so as he ushers the members of the congregation to their seats for the Sunday service, or while he's on duty at the Reading Room. If he is faithful to the ideal of perfect God and perfect man revealed in his textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, he will find ample reason to love and to rejoice as each person comes into view. He will not allow thoughts of either condemnation or commiseration, because of some false condition he may detect, to gather and cloud his vision of the good that is present. No sense of revulsion or regret, pity or personal emotion, will cause him to act or react in a manner inappropriate to a metaphysician. Occupied in the business of true identification—discerning, loving, and rejoicing in that which is revealed through spiritual sense—he will detect, but only to reject as untrue, that which is unlike the divine image.

This doesn't mean we are to be blind to false mental traits and physical weaknesses in others. On the contrary. The spiritual right knowing we exercise will enable us more readily to detect an error in order to help and heal.

If, for example, one is asked for a candid appraisal of the talents and suitability of one who is under consideration for a job or a step of progress, one's eyes should not be shut to the less worthy aspects of that person's human character and his physical and mental abilities. One's comments should not glow with humanly unmerited praise on the grounds that the spiritual, God-created individuality of that one is perfect in the divine likeness.

False traits are not to be ignored but detected, faced up to, and destroyed. Until the perfection of true being is fully demonstrated, for the good of all concerned these errors should be exposed as the false claims that they are. Mrs. Eddy says, "Expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in them." ^{Science and Health, p. 447 ;} In so doing we prove the facts of perfect, spiritual being and "overcome evil with good." ^{Rom. 12:21 .} Such integrity will ensure that until perfection is attained, appropriate words will come to us whereby to identify people with accuracy but also with love, in ways that will spiritually uplift.