Signs of the times, spiritual progress, and the Golden Rule

WILLIAM E. MOODY

Much as at the beginning of other eras, the turn of the last century prompted many thinkers to contemplate the future. Some were impelled to analyze trends of their day and attempt to determine what ensuing years would bring to mankind. Would there be peace, strife, happiness, despair, abundance, poverty? Would society experience a period of progress and enlightenment or decay and disillusionment?

The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, had something to say about the new century. She was among a number of public figures and religious leaders who were asked by a metropolitan newspaper to share their views on the dangers that might confront humanity in the years to come. Many wrote of their deep concerns about the selfish pursuit of monetary gain and the rise of imperialism. Mrs. Eddy, in her response, did not try to paint either a rose-colored future or a dark and bleak horizon. Instead, she insightfully pointed out certain pitfalls that mankind would have to recognize and overcome in order to advance to a higher, even to a more spiritual, standard of living.

On December 30, 1900, Mrs. Eddy's words were published in the New York World: "To my sense, the most imminent dangers confronting the coming century are: the robbing of people of life and liberty under the warrant of the Scriptures; the claims of politics and of human power, industrial slavery, and insufficient freedom of honest competition; and ritual, creed, and trusts in place of the Golden Rule, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' "^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 266.}