ONE of the noblest tasks of Christian Science is to rescue the right ideas expressed by words from the false concepts which the usage of mortal mind has ingrafted into them. The word pride should not be discarded because it has been abused. There is an aspect of dignity and splendor attached to true pride which raises that quality into the heights where dwell the meek, the gentle, and the childlike, who are confident of their nearness to God. This is so clearly brought out in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew's gospel: "At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said . . . Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." To understand God's power is cause for genuine pride. To see the glory of God in the healing of Truth is cause for the elation of the heart. Many healings of degeneracy by Christian Science have restored the spiritual self-respect of individuals who felt their human pride gone.
Pride is not necessarily vanity. There is a right aspect to pride but none to vanity. To be conscious of man's real worth and to reject that which is unworthy of him is to fulfill one of the definitions of pride as found in Webster's collegiate dictionary, namely, "elevation of character." Christian Science clearly teaches that man is the reflection of God. It follows then that no description of man's character couched in material terms can be adequate, that only an unlimited list of good mental and spiritual qualities can do justice to man. The real man has reached the utmost "elevation of character." He has reason to be proud, that is to say, to be appreciative of his God-bestowed nature.
There is, however, a pride of power which parades its evil nature over a cowering world. Mrs. Eddy has said on page 142 of Science and Health: "As in Jesus' time, so to-day, tyranny and pride need to be whipped out of the temple, and humility and divine Science to be welcomed in." The hardhearted, the arrogant, the stilted, the stiff-necked types of human beings use pride to suit themselves. They do not recognize spiritual law nor understand it. Divine compassion is farthest from their thought. They would rather talk evil than talk good, and so it usually seems necessary in human experience for the hardhearted to suffer in order to soften their natures.
