Wouldn't the world be much improved if there were less faultfinding and more Christ-finding among its inhabitants? By Christ-finding I mean looking for and finding that always present divine influence that Christ Jesus identified when he spoke of the kingdom of God within you. It must therefore be within everyone, whether he or she knows or exhibits it or not! Such Christliness consists of Godlike qualities: goodness, holiness, honesty, love, patience, purity, understanding, uprightness.

And of course, faultfinding is that unpleasant and almost unending habit most of us are guilty of that consists of looking for something in others to criticize or ridicule. Now, in all honesty, who is really free of all faults? Don't most of us have to admit to harboring more hidden faults than we'd like our friends or neighbors or loved ones to know about?

Have you ever thought how wonderful it would be to be free of faults entirely? As I considered this one day, it occurred to me to make a list of what I believed to be the worst faults I was harboring—like criticism, impatience, irritability, overreaction, procrastination—just a little list! Not surprisingly it got longer and longer and longer! I haven't yet succeeded in wiping the slate clean, but in the spirit of James's instruction in the Bible "Confess your faults one to another," I'm still working at it. How about joining me?

One of the most basic points in the theology of Christian Science derives from the declaration in the opening chapter of the Bible that God created man in His image and likeness. The Bible further emphasizes that God is Spirit and totally good. Hence man as God's likeness must be spiritual, good, faultless—totally. Spiritual man, the real man in God's likeness, is thus wholly innocent of the vagaries of the flesh that tend to characterize the conditions of a fault-inclined human experience. The Apostle Paul admonishes that this faulty concept of man must be put off, while he true concept, the "new" man, or the real spiritual man, must be put on—accepted and lived.

Mankind's prime illustration of this truly exemplary sort of humanhood is regarded by Christians to be Christ Jesus. Even the Roman ruler Pilate observed, "I find no fault in this man." Since our great Exemplar, Christ Jesus, was without fault, doesn't this call upon his would-be followers to strive to put off human faults or negative traits of character that would hinder advancement Spiritward? Mrs. Eddy has written in her book Miscellaneous Writings, "Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike 'the anointed,' and cast it out. ..." This may not always be easy, but it is rewarding.

Such mental self-examination, accompanied by spiritual self-knowledge or affirmation of one's true spiritual nature in the likeness of God, enables one to discard negative qualities of thought and their influence and to replace these with constructive and harmonious Christliness after the prayer of the Psalmist: "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

Acknowledging to oneself hidden faults (and the all too obvious ones as well) can be humbling and very revealing! And isn't one of the worst of these the very unlovely and destructive practice of faultfinding—either of people or things around us?

Of course, it is important to recognize that all criticism isn't always negative. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy observes, "The wrong lies in unmerited censure,—in the falsehood which does no one any good." The problem is the destructive and unjust criticism that so often occurs, as well as the picky faultfinding and petty put-downs of another. And don't we need to be alert, too, to the arbitrary self-exaltation of one's self that unnecessarily judges and unkindly exposes the fancied or actual shortcomings of another?

The temptation is not unusual to see another as only a frail mortal, while ignoring his underlying spirituality as constituted in the man that is the likeness of God, infinite Spirit. But as we strive to acknowledge in others the true goodness we would like to experience ourselves, we can begin to fulfill the admonition of Jesus that we love others as ourselves. Actually, isn't unjust criticism a failure to exemplify the Christ or to see the Christ qualities in another, the divine influence that is present in every human consciousness, whether obvious or not? This very subtle form of faultfinding is one of the most serious of faults. And isn't it one that most of us need to strive to overcome and eliminate? So let us always examine our motives and ponder how closely we are adhering to Jesus' instruction to love our neighbor as ourself. And let's also be alert to that faultfinding which, even if not spoken, remains to taint our thought of another and hinders our seeing his or her true goodness. Probably many of us have enough faults ourselves needing to be eliminated that we should tend to them and let others tend to theirs!

Mrs. Eddy once wrote to The Christian Science Board of Lectureship: "You may condemn evil in the abstract without harming any one or your own moral sense, but condemn persons seldom, if ever. Improve every opportunity to correct sin through your own perfectness." (Her comments are recorded in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.)

Christ Jesus set the prime example of this in this treatment of the situation in which was brought to him the woman found in the act of adultery. His detractors wished to see whether Jesus would approve of her being stoned (the traditional punishment for such conduct) or if he would condone her actions. Instead, he replied: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." And the account continues: "And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." Then finding that none condemned her, he said to her, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

Jesus must have seen the woman's true spiritual goodness and innocence, her readiness to live a pure life, where the others had seen only a mortal concept to judge and condemn. If we would walk in the Master's footsteps, we must learn to see the real spiritual self of another, even if according to human apprehension there may appear to be a wrongdoer. And if the latter is prepared to make whatever correction or compensation may be necessary, what is there to condemn?

God, good, in His infinite love and wisdom, knows only the good, that which He creates and imparts. And isn't this really what we all need to acknowledge and accept for others as well as for ourselves? Let's then pursue the elimination of those faults that seem to crowd into individual human consciousness and let's overcome traits of faultfinding that do no one any good. For after all, our neighbor may have rid himself already of some of the faults we're still harboring! Let's focus instead upon the Christ-finding which sees that divine influence which Jesus identified as the kingdom of God within all: the innocency of the Christ-idea within, the spiritual self in the likeness of God.