Editorial March 15, 1982 Issue

The Science of the Golden Rule

BEULAH M. ROEGGE

Spiritual, scientific truths underlie the Golden Rule—truths that mankind has felt in some degree through the centuries. When we all understand them fully, and live them, there will be no more friction between people, no more war.

The prohibiting, or negative, action of the rule was observed first. In Jewish literature appearing about the time of Jesus, the rule is stated this way: "What you hate, do not do to anyone." The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible |IDB] (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), Vol. 2, p. 438 . Christ Jesus gave its positive form. In Matthew, the Golden Rule appears near the end of the Sermon on the Mount and follows directions regarding prayer. It reads, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. 7:12. In Luke the rule follows a discourse on loving one's enemies. See Luke 6:31 . As one Bible commentator points out, "Its meaning for followers of Jesus must be correlated with the rest of his teaching and with his own example in conduct.... Its truth, creatively and imaginatively applied in all human situations, moves men to a mutual good beyond all calculation." IDB, Vol. 2, p. 438 .

The Golden Rule expresses the scientific fact that all being is one, and that God's laws are universal and impartial. In a very basic sense, what we do unto others we do unto ourselves. "Christian Science is not a dweller apart in royal solitude; it is not a law of matter, nor a transcendentalism that heals only the sick," writes Mrs. Eddy. "This Science is a law of divine Mind, a persuasive animus, an unerring impetus, an ever-present help." And in the following paragraph she states, "When, by losing his faith in matter and sin, one finds the spirit of Truth, then he practises the Golden Rule spontaneously; and obedience to this rule spiritualizes man, for the world's nolens volens cannot enthrall it." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 3-4.

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