Side by side with that commandment which bids us love God supremely and our neighbor as ourself, stands its complement, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." To love God supremely is of necessity to put the advancement of His kingdom first in our affections, and Christian Scientists have proved again and again that so seeking they have indeed found all things are theirs. Yet to deal justly with our neighbor, to regard his rights as on a par with our own, —yea, to love our neighbor as ourself,—these are demands that put Christianity to the proof and place upon us a responsibility that cannot well be ignored.
Just as Christian Science has vitalized religion for countless thousands, made it something tangible, something to be lived not only one day in a week but carried into the business and social relations of the other six days as well, even so it is vitalizing the thought of Christmas, lifting it from the plane of the material to the spiritual. He who came to demonstrate "on earth peace, good will toward men," made the manifestation of the Christmas spirit, the spirit of loving and giving, a daily rather than a yearly occasion. It is not Christ's Christianity that the Christmas fires of joy and cheer should burn brightly one day, and the hearth lie cold and drear with its burned out ashes until the cycle is completed. Even as the Master set aside the ritualistic canons of his time by healing the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day, so we need to break away from age-long customs and traditions and let the Christ-love, which is tender and compassionate, which "suffereth long, and is kind," rule our hearts and lives, so far as our fellow men are concerned, the whole year through—a perpetual Christmas.
It is this spirit of self-abnegation, "in honor preferring one another," which our Leader has embodied in the "Rule for Motives and Acts" (Manual, Art. VIII, Sect. 1). "Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment," she counsels, "should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness." Surely the wisdom here expressed is a reflection of the infinite intelligence, the one Mind, since strict obedience to its letter and spirit would render inharmony in any church or society an impossibility. It is the test that "as by fire" brings out the gold in human character, since to be absolutely impartial in one's judgment—putting personal feeling entirely aside and giving weight only to the good of the cause—calls for prayerful consideration and ofttimes such wrestling as Jacob knew at Peniel.
