UPON the human plane, individualism, the independent living of one's own life, may have both a noble and an ignoble expression. In its demand for personal freedom, its right to work out its own salvation subject to none other but God, the democratic idea is altogether worthy. No one can "play the man" without taking this stand, otherwise he is sure to become the puppet of some dominating personality, the appendage of a stronger belief. As Mrs. Eddy has said, one must see to it that he is free "from self-imposed materiality and bondage" (Science and Health, p. 191). When, however, in living one's own life he evinces a disposition to ignore his fellow men, the call of humanity, then the instincts of selfishness are immediately disclosed, and in so far he becomes subject to that disposition which eventuates in the survival of the physically strongest, the most cruelly clever.
Christian Science awakens an altogether new and nobler sense of the meaning of individualism, a meaning which cannot come to one who identifies man with the material order, and subject as such to sin, disease, and death. It leads one to recognize, as he has not before, the dignity of his place, the splendor of his privilege, the greatness of his power. It interprets and applies the words of the Master, "Ye are the light of the world," in a way that is surprising to many, because so straightforward, so daring, and so practical, as though they really expressed a tremendous verity. The true individualism is spiritual; it honors the Christ-man, and it bears its own burdens in a way that eases the burden of every other man. This gives it distinction and boundless influence. It not only illustrates but it rejoices in the fact that "none of us liveth to himself," and it thus becomes brotherly, Messianic, redemptive. It is only from this scientifically compassionate point of view, and with this spirit, that the communal life can be intelligently studied and advanced, the common burden recognized and permanently lightened.
However far removed a man may be from his fellows, whether socially, economically, or otherwise, and however independent of them he may feel himself, if at all thoughtful he cannot fail to see that he is linked to humanity in unnumbered ways; and the poise and potency of the individualism which every worthy Christian Scientist ultimately reaches and maintains, will enable him to contribute to the weal of humanity as he never has before. He now perceives that mortal mentality is a vast sea, into which the tributaries of material sense have been pouring their floods in all the years; that by inheritance and education all men have been submerged in that vasty deep of false belief whose surging currents carry them hither and thither without their knowing the nature or source of the impulses which control them. So that, as Omar Khayyam has said,—
