WHEN the time draws near for the election of officers in the branch churches, it is fitting that every active worker for the cause should earnestly endeavor to manifest a keen, practical knowledge of how best to cast his vote for the highest welfare of the church of which he is a member. The word politics in a good sense is thus defined: "Sagacious in promoting a policy, wise, prudent." Frequently, however, the word politics is used in a disapproving sense, and this is because the counterfeit meaning of the word is substituted for the original. In a bad sense it is defined as "that which is devoted to a scheme or system rather than to a principle; artful, unscrupulous, cunning."
Foreseeing that the Christian Science movement must eventually cleanse and elevate every line of human endeavor, our Leader has given many practical rules in the Manual of The Mother Church for the guidance of Christian Scientists to a Christlike method to be used in politics through which man is governed wholly by God, divine Principle. One of the most helpful of these rules, "A Rule for Motives and Acts" (Art. VIII, Sect. 1), is read in The Mother Church and in every branch church the first Sunday in each month. Members are admonished to turn away from "mere personal attachment," and to seek at all times the guidance of God, who is always divine Love.
A simple illustration will serve to show how this rule may be put into practice. A Christian Scientist who had been striving to gain a better understanding of the highest spiritual order in church government, was approached by one of the younger workers shortly before the annual meeting in one of the branch churches, and was asked this apparently harmless question: "Have you thought of any members for the next readers?" For some time the older worker had been seeking divine illumination on this very question, and it had seemed to her that she had been convinced in her own thought respecting the ones best fitted for these important duties. It is well recognized among workers in a Christian Science church that any phase of personal direction or influence is erroneous, since God, who is always infinite, ever-present Mind, wisely directs man in all his ways. The basis of true government is knowledge of God. As soon as the older worker had reminded herself that God's presence is always with man and that His direction alone brings peace, she naturally and quietly made reply, "My choice is God and His idea."
