"Children of light"

ROBERT STANLEY ROSS

Considering the standard of perfection which Mrs.

Eddy's teachings have raised for the gauging of human conduct, onlookers are sometimes critical because Christian Scientists fail to approach closer than they do to the Christ-ideal, as set forth in our Leader's textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Unfair as this attitude may appear to be, all of us should be willing to admit that Christian Scientists have less excuse than any other class of people for falling short of perfection in conduct. Mrs. Eddy has pointed out to them plainly how they may avoid the pitfalls of error. "For ye were sometimes darkness," wrote Paul to the Ephesians, "but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light."

In every Christian Science congregation there are those noble hearts, athirst for God, who long for a satisfying religion. To them, any promise it may hold of merely physical relief from sickness means comparatively little,—their desire is always for greater spiritual good. If our congregations were made up of these already sweet, cultured, spiritually inclined thinkers, many troublesome denominational discords would never arise. Error and discord can express themselves only so long as they find unlovely traits of character through which to work. In observing the effects of Christian Science on human minds and bodies, however, critics need to be reminded that this Science alone promises mankind a present way of escape from all its sorrows, sins, and sufferings. Consequently, the majority of those who turn to Christian Science, turn to it with hitherto unsolvable problems. Physical ailments may bow quickly to the application of the truth; but human character will yield to correction only after a prolonged struggle.

Instead of wondering, therefore, why Christian Science does not immediately make saints out of sinners (and all are sinners in the degree that they believe in the reality of evil and become the victims of it), observers should rejoice that this Science is capable of salvaging and assimilating—be it fast or ever so slowly—that which might otherwise be human wreckage, abandoned as hopeless or helpless by the old systems of theology and medicine. Nevertheless, because the divine Principle of all good is ever available to them, Christian Scientists should, and in most cases do, understand that they have in charge a responsibility more solemn and sacred than has ever before been entrusted to the keeping of a people. With this Principle to guide them, Christian Scientists will always be trustworthy friends, affectionate parents, honest business men, hospitable neighbors, and watchful citizens.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus pointed out that he had not come ruthlessly to overturn the present order of things. He had come to take conditions as they were and to improve them. He said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." In Science and Health (p. 485) Mrs. Eddy says: "Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth." True Christian Scientists cannot ride roughshod out of matter, or over the social amenities of life. Knowing this, they will calmly and unobtrusively take every needful step in the unfoldment of Christian character until, in the words of Paul, they come naturally and normally, through increasingly better health and morals, "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

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