One of the most subtle enemies of scientific and harmonious progress is that particular phase of mortal thinking known among Christian Scientists as self-pity. Mrs. Eddy has pointed out many times throughout her writings that the truth about any specific manifestation of materiality may be arrived at by reversal; for it is evident that a lie can only be the misrepresentation or distortion of the truth. It would be well for us to apply this process of inversion to the mental state of self-pity, since most of us have made its acquaintance at one time or another.
The word pity usually signifies a loving sympathy with the difficulties of others, coupled with a desire to help. The word compassion expresses the same thought a little more comprehensively, and if we are in any doubt as to the godlike character of this quality of thought we have only to turn to the New Testament records to find how continually the Master "had compassion" on those who came within the radius of his loving ministry. Compassion is, therefore, preeminently a characteristic of the divine Mind, and humanly reflected simply means divine Principle, Love, applied to human affairs. It is evident that we have no need to reverse that which is a reflection of perfect Mind, and we are therefore led to confine our attention to the word "self" as constituting the perversion of this godlike attribute. Christian Science has done much to eliminate this word from the vocabularies of its students, and on the very first page of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy has said that "an unselfed love" is one of the three prime essentials comprising the effectual prayer "that reforms the sinner and heals the sick."
By reversing the quality or habit of "self-pity," therefore, we arrive at the scientific idea of "unselfed love," —that gentle compassion for the woes of humanity which knows no taint of self, and which, faithfully and prayerfully put into practice, constitutes a perfect antidote for self-love. Mere human pity, ungoverned by the divine compassion, may only have the effect of weakening and stifling its object. It touches our hearts to read that even the Master wept at the tomb of Lazarus, and the world has been so fascinated by the idea of the weeping Jesus that it has almost forgotten how very far he must have been above the human sense of sorrow when he stood beside the sepulcher and commanded him that was dead to "come forth." Scholastic theology has been so much concerned with the agony in Gethsemane that it has almost overlooked the true meaning of the triumph of the Easter morn.
