To love one's neighbor as one's self and to do unto others as one would be done by are different statements of the same rule. The Golden Rule is a spiritual inheritance of the race, treasured by all who love God and man. It is spiritually self-evident, so that it is not open to debate, but its practical application encounters the opposition of the world, the flesh, and the devil. These deep-seated antagonisms can only be successfully destroyed by Christian Science, because that Science alone copes with mental suggestions by exposing their powerlessness. The Golden Rule requires right thinking as the basis of right acting; it cannot be strictly obeyed without an understanding of Christian metaphysics, which reveals the nothingness of material life and experience. The understanding of the infinite goodness of God and of the fact that God is Mind brings the scientific assurance that an absolutely good Mind conceived and created the universe including man and controls now now and forever. The unity of God and man proves the unsubstantial nature of hatred, envy, fear, and all other mental concepts which seek to break the Golden Rule, and teaches us to love our enemies, thus blessing instead of cursing them.

Public thought has now been startled into taking account of the dangers of wrong thinking. It has been forced to consider the workings of an enemy psychology which sought to dominate the world by breaking the Golden Rule mentally, that is, by propagating mental suggestions which were intended to control and confuse the human mind into subjection. Christian Science provides a complete remedy for such attempted mental manipulations. It teaches mankind that there is no law, no necessity which can force anyone to pick up evil suggestions and make them a part of one's thinking; that, on the contrary, it is man's privilege and right to think in accordance with the commands of the divine Mind, God, and thus to elude all the mental pitfalls artfully prepared by the cunning of the carnal mind.

Many years ago Mrs. Eddy warned her followers not only against unconscious wrong thinking, which is characteristic of all mortals, but also against these very methods of conscious wrong thinking which have been laid bare during the world war. She states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 31), "To mentally argue in a manner that can disastrously affect the happiness of a fellow-being—harm him morally, physically, or spiritually—breaks the Golden Rule and subverts the scientific laws of being." The intentional wrong thinker uses the world's commonly accepted falsities with which to attack the spiritually minded in the attempt to deter them from obeying God and following the Golden Rule. Since the law of God must invariably displace the law of the world, the evil planner whispers to those who heal the sick by spiritual means, What will the world think? and to those who fight for liberty, What will people say? When Herodias' daughter asked the head of John the Baptist, Herod, we read in Scripture, "was exceedingly sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her." Pilate, though reluctant to deliver Jesus to the mob and in spite of his wife's warning was yet persuaded to do so because he was "willing to content the people." Moral courage born of spiritual conviction could alone give the necessary strength to Mary Baker Eddy to give the world her revolutionary book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." If the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science had obeyed the voice of the world she could not have blessed the world.

There is a common saying that it is a poor rule which does not work both ways. The necessary corollary of the Golden Rule is not often mentioned, but it is vital to the progress of Christian Scientists. The advancing Christian must learn not only to do unto others as he would be done by, but must also do unto himself as he would do to others. Self-condemnation seizes an unfair advantage. Many a compassionate Christian is charitable toward others, but merciless to himself. Wherein lies the difference between one's own false sense of self and another's false sense? Are they not equally false, and are they not equally entitled to correction? Is thy neighbor more entitled to salvation than thyself? The same measure of loving help which the scientific Christian extends to another, he should extend to himself, thus working out his own salvation strictly and scientifically in accordance with the Scriptural injunction and the Golden Rule. We must learn to stop doing the work of the evil thinker by cursing ourselves instead of blessing ourselves. We cannot heal ourselves by hating ourselves, any more than we can heal our brother by hating our brother. We must be as encouraging to ourselves as we are to another in sickness and sin. We must be as willing to see our own faults and our own good qualities as we are to see the faults and good qualities of our neighbor. For, in the final analysis, all good comes from the one Father-Mother of us all, and all evil is nothingness.

Children quickly grasp the reasonableness of the Golden Rule and with them it works both ways, for it is not their practice to condemn themselves. False theology and the opinions of the world may educate these little ones by degrees to cast condemnatory stones at themselves, but this false tendency is foreign to unspoiled youth, and need not govern their elders. At this testing time Christian Scientists will be greatly helped by Mrs. Eddy's simple and practical advice found on page 234 of Science and Health: "We should become more familiar with good than with evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we bar our doors against the approach of thieves and murderers. We should love our enemies and help them on the basis of the Golden Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and others."

William D. McCrackan.