IT is a great thing to be an honest man, to deal squarely with one's neighbor, one's ideal, one's better self, one's God, — to be entirely worthy of confidence, to be genuine through and through, — and the value of Christian Science lies in part in this, that it gives us the Principle and rule by which we may reach this splendid achievement. Honesty, in the best sense, includes everything in the line of duty, it is the sum and substance of true living. We have all sought, no doubt, to avoid the grosser dishonesties, the things that are not in "good form," that bring a sense of self-contempt and consequent discomfort, but to be honest at the center of thought and motive, to be incapable of any degree of cant, hypocrisy, or pretense, to be loyal to the best we know all the time, and that regardless, — this is the test of moral worth, of manhood, and it is here that we have all failed so many times at the "mid-years."
There may be many facts which seem to witness to a decrease of general interest in the Christian life, the lapse of a refined moral sense, but in the world's ever-increasing insistence that Christian men shall not only stand for the highest order of integrity, but that they shall bring it into expression in their social and business life, — in this there is a good showing for the advance of truth and right. As never before, men are insisting that the higher the ideal presented by a faith, the more unvarying and entire shall be the honesty of those who represent it, and it is in keeping with this fact that Christian Scientists are placed under requirements which are no less legitimate than exacting. It is rightly demanded of them that they shall rally to the call of their Leader when she says, "Honesty is spiritual power." "We must receive the divine Principle in the understanding, and live it in daily life" (Science and Health, pp. 453, 283).
Here, as everywhere, responsibility means opportunity, and we shall fulfil the one as we rightly estimate the other. As exponents of Christian Science we may say that we have been healed of many things through its ministry, but if men find that our planning and doing is not marked by a finely discriminating moral sense, that we are capable of consenting to doubtful compromises, to the petty pretense and prevarication which give promise of subserving selfish ends, then our testimony will count for nothing, and we do well to recognize the fact. No man can commend his faith to others if he does not live a life that is consistent with that faith.
