Article October 1, 2013

Position

Nellie B. Mace

Originally published in the October 1, 1918 issue of The Christian Science Monitor

With the entire structure of society in a state of uncertainty, with the permanent apparently lost in flux, with old positions being abandoned through the compulsion of the hour and new positions being constantly created, the fetish of efficiency may assume a warrant for affirming that the materially efficient shall be the dominant; although the very upheaval of the old is compelling the conclusion that it is not mere material efficiency, but spiritual law, which provides a right place for every individual and causes the individual to come into his place. If the old order had wrought out the harmony and equality of man, there would have been no need of a readjustment. Tottering governments and false systems, however, indicate the immense need of an understanding of divine Principle, an understanding wherein every individual is seen to be a necessary and perfect unit in the whole, and all equally entitled to all that is good.

The understanding of this law enables a man to govern himself correctly and know that he cannot at any time be forced or kept out of his right position in accordance with Principle. It demands, at the same time, as scrupulous a regard for the rights and happiness of others as for one's own; for one's own sense of good can indeed be stabilized only through the understanding that good is universal. It is just this endeavor to conform one's thought and conduct to the law of impartial divine Love, that brings the proof of the government of Principle in one's individual affairs; for, as Mrs. Eddy writes on page 106 of Science and Health, "Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love."

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