The extra money was in my hand. I stood in the bank lobby and debated returning it to the teller who had made the mistake. We needed the money, and the bank was one of those faceless institutions I had come to distrust. Suddenly, I remembered something I had been told—if a teller came up with a shortage at the end of a day, he or she had to make it up out of personal funds. My heart went out to that teller, and I marched right back to the window and handed in the bills. I forgot about my own need for money. I'd found the right thing to do, had done it, and it felt good.

Years later, after I'd started to study Christian Science, I thought more about this incident. At the time I hadn't taken it lightly and had been shocked at my hesitation in returning the money. It was a wake-up call to the fact that I was morally drifting, and it was one of several experiences that made me welcome the actual Science of Christianity.

With the light that my study of this Science threw on the human scene, I could understand the mental forces that had confused me. At that time, big business seemed to be the enemy. The glory of making the United States a leading industrial nation was tarnished by a greater public awareness of a few far from glorious practices that had crept into our free enterprise system—practices not unlike what is going on today in some countries that are gaining a new and heady freedom from repressive governments.

What had cut through the moral confusion and kept me from breaking the divine commandment not to steal was an almost unconscious yielding to what has been called the Golden Rule: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matt. 7:12). Moral qualities had been aroused and had proved their eternal ability to lift actions above confusion and wrongdoing.

In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy lists humanity as one of eight qualities of thought and action that she designates as moral. They are "humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance" (p. 115).

Cultivating these qualities leads to a more spontaneous obedience to God's commands, with less mental debate about specific decisions. These qualities cooperate and support one another as the incident described earlier illustrates. Humanity brought forth honesty. Affection and compassion were certainly evident. In fact, a way to evaluate a stand or decision is to see if all these moral qualities support it. If an action seems humane but is not honest, one might well question it. Or, if it is honest but lacks affection and compassion, it's time to look for a higher solution.

Considering these qualities as moral, one must conclude their opposites to be immoral. A mother was unusually concerned about the actions of her children and their friends. She felt shut out of their experiences and was desperately afraid they were experimenting with drugs and sex. She'd been hearing all kinds of warnings about the temptations teenagers were facing that had not been present in earlier days. And to her credit, this mother was trying to resolve these issues and not stick her head in the sand.

She became ill and asked for prayerful help from a Christian Science practitioner. She knew that Christian Science treatment doesn't start with a problem, except to deny it, but witnesses the enduring goodness of an ever-present God. In the glow of such spiritual light, she began to let go of a clutching responsibility. And in this sweet sense of healing, redemption came as well as the physical cure. She began to recognize that she really wasn't expressing much faith in God, and was allowing herself to feel quite hopeless about the future of these young people and of the world. It came to her that if hope was moral, hopelessness was immoral. Looking at the young people from a more hopeful, a more moral, perspective, she could see that they weren't deliberately making mistakes. They were trying to find their way. Her subsequent interaction and communication with them were far more effective in fostering obedience than moralizing had ever been.

Obedience to God and His commandments may be considered divinely natural. Recognizing spiritual man, the true selfhood of each one of us, to be the image, the reflection, of God, we see that man cannot help being obedient. Obedience isn't so much doing what a manlike God commands one to do as it is doing what the wholly spiritual sons and daughters of God cannot fail to do. Morality lifts the human being to express more of his or her Godlike nature.

The eight moral qualities listed earlier are referred to in the textbook as being "transitional." They are not ends in themselves, but they do lift and keep human experience above depravity, allowing the higher nature of mankind to develop and prevail until the pure reality of man forever at one with his creator is realized.

Christ Jesus lived a thoroughly moral life, expressing not only unequaled healing and reforming compassion, but the meekness that impelled him to refuse even to be called a good man, saying in essence that all good was of God and never a personal possession or accomplishment (see Mark 10:17, 18). He gave new meaning to the quality of temperance—total abstinence from depending on any form of matter, including beliefs in time and space. In fact, Jesus surpassed the moral qualities and embodied spiritual power, love, and holiness.

With his high example before us, and constantly mindful of the Golden Rule he taught us, we find ourselves expressing more fully and consistently both moral and spiritual qualities. Moral confusion evaporates. In fact the very term moral confusion may be considered an oxymoron. Where there is genuine morality there is little opportunity for confusion.

The Founder of the Christian Science Church, Mary Baker Eddy, recognized the potential of her Church as a great moral influence in the world. In speaking of two of its publications, she writes that they "are prolific sources of spiritual power whose intellectual, moral, and spiritual animus is felt throughout the land" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 113).

Sentinel readers thoughtfully considering the ideas in this magazine are doing more than gaining what Robert Frost called "a momentary stay against confusion." Scientific, spiritual ideas, whenever entertained, clarify moral issues. Individuals seeking surer and purer personal standards, business reaching for more ethical practices, and governments needing to bring responsible freedom to newly liberated people will be guided. The Isaiah prophecy "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (30:21) promises an end to confusion and a fulfillment of righteous commands. Consciously expressing the moral qualities keeps our ears attuned.