Ministering to Right Motives

William P. McKenzie

Sometimes a politician is heard declaring that honor does not exist in these days and appeal must be made not to the fineness of character which should be in men, but merely to the gross selfishness which holds the multitude in darkness, and we are unable to think of such a politician as being a light in that darkness. Newspapers as a rule are not allowed to circulate among criminals, and if one asks why this is, the answer of the warden will be that they so continually record the evil acts of men, revealing how evil is accomplished, and explaining its power and success, and so ministering to every sort of evil motive that they arouse cupidity and lustful desire. Now there should be a reversal of all this. Appeal can be made not only to honor but to inward righteousness just as "successfully now as at any time in the world's history. Readers of periodicals are more ready than at any time to respond to spiritual quickening, and to exhibit enthusiasm for righteousness. If the press allows itself to be an agency for showing the mental criminal how to act, and discourages the good man by piling up evidences of active paganism in Christian lands, there is still the fact of Christianity; and men are coming to understand better the power thereof, because Christian Science through its healing efficacy is turning the minds of so many from darkness to light.

If one would minister to his own right motives he must be careful what he hears. It is a common proverb, "Those who sow the wind, reap the whirlwind." An officer in a crowded camp once said, "Whatever rumor you like to start, it will come back to you multiplied in two hours." If it is believed, for example, that a man hates some one else, any number of sycophants will appear to tell him all manner of evil about the one viewed as his enemy. Neither the invention of such arguments nor hospitality to them can in any way help a man's Christianity. They only make it harder for him to obey Jesus' words of correction, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

We must then minister to our right motives by supporting them. We must find facts to encourage good will, and must make actual demonstrations to quicken love. There is a great work to be done in correcting false imaginations and in clearing away from our outlook the mental pictures put there by others for wrong purposes. Our Leader says (Miscellany, p. 206), "Schisms, imagination, and human beliefs are not parts of Christian Science; they darken the discernment of Science; they divide Truth's garment and cast lots for it."

In order to minister to right motives in ourselves or others, we must learn to discriminate between the false and the true at every point of action. The man who is honest with himself learns much and is saved from the danger of being the victim of another's dishonesty. This is explained with all clearness by Mrs. Eddy when she says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 117), "The student of Christian Sciencemust first separate the tares from the wheat; discern between the thought, motive, and act superinduced by the wrong motive or the true—the God-given intent and volition—arrest the former, and obey the latter."

"The noblest motive is the public good," is a saying attributed to Virgil, but his culture reached not to any revelation of the way to acquire aright what William James named motivation. Mrs. Eddy has been a simplifier of philosophy as well as revelator of true theology. The ancient view of God as both loving and jealous, as rewarder and punisher, as benignant light and consuming fire, precluded the expectation of deriving from the divine source unmingled good. Was not God viewed as riding on the storm clouds or as preceded by the vapory pestilence? To find in Christian Science that God is wholly good; power that heals and redeems; Love itself, or divine Principle that saves, is to discover the true source of life and joy. Mrs. Eddy has spoken of the "God-given intent and volition" as that which we should obey. Here is wisdom and philosophy simplified and theology made comprehensible. The simple thing to do is to let true causation "motivate" in our own lives; and we reach the height of nobility when we can minister to others any arousement of right motives and instillment of uplifting inspiration. No upward struggling, no spiritual longing, no aspiring motive, no prayerful intent, can fail of reaching its fruition. Our Leader has said (No and Yes, p. 8), "We can rejoice that every germ of goodness will at last struggle into freedom and greatness, and every sin will so punish itself that it will bow down to the commandments of Christ,—Truth and Love."

William P. McKenzie.

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