That oft repeated message of John that we "love one another," which has echoed down the centuries, became the motive call of every step in Mrs. Eddy's great demonstration of founding and binding together The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, with all its worldwide branches. Christian Scientists need often to whisper the message to one another in fair weather and in storm. They need also to seek the inspired understanding of what that message means.
On page 250 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy tells us, "Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power." This statement, coupled with the study of "A Rule for Motives and Acts," in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 1), opens our spiritual vision to the practical import of John's revelation when he saw "the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration,—reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God," to quote from page 561 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It is surely this "human and divine coincidence" which we shall bring into our experience in proportion as we are able to interpret the spirit of this important rule of the Manual. It is the white garment of righteousness for a Christian Scientist. It bases an individual's understanding of and loyalty to the teachings and works of Jesus, as scientifically explained by Mrs. Eddy through her discovery of Christian Science. By putting this By-law into constant practice, the meaning of the other By-laws will slowly but surely be revealed to those who are watching and praying, giving them a clear vision of the protective power and scope of the government proclaimed by our Manual.
Our grateful human affection for Jesus and for our Leader can be proved only by following in their footsteps; and this By-law, with its three distinct parts, enables us to start rightly on the path of individual demonstration. It begins at the outset by lifting thought above the discordant atmosphere of personal likes and dislikes into the understanding of the universal, unchanging love of God, expressed in the harmonious activity of spiritual law. It is by dwelling with this spiritual law, impelled by the spiritual ideas with which our heavenly Father feeds all His children, that a Christian Scientist can truly say with Jesus, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." This expresses the activity of its healing power. This is the welcome to the weary and heavy-laden, —the willing recognition, rebuke, and rejection of sick and sinful thoughts; the true brotherliness which encourages and supports our neighbor while this process is going on; the Christlike charity which can see a brother's need and supply it; the forgiveness which blots out unreality, and discerns the white radiance of the spiritual idea. Those who are seeking honestly will never be turned away by the heart which is thus filled with good.
Through constant watchfulness and prayer, the divine law of progress in the realization of that "human and divine coincidence" brings deliverance from the varying modes and claims of evil, mentioned in the last part of the "Rule for Motives and Acts," and gives the Christian Scientist not only success in the wide channels of The Mother Church activities, but also dominion over the national and international troubles which seem so widespread in the world to-day. The last sentence in this By-law reads, "The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously." This means much more than a mere list of acts to be classified as erroneous or correct. It covers the whole panorama of human life, individual and collective. As we become associated with the activities of our movement, as we learn to take a right view of world conditions and to understand the human needs of the day, it becomes more and more imperative to beware of the pitfalls just enumerated.
It is, therefore, both interesting and profitable to consider each of them in turn; and, doing so, it can be seen at a glance that one sin which would blind the unwary student and would lead him straight to these pitfalls is that of self-righteousness,— the scarlet robe of worldly worship, stained with the blood of prophets and saints, the Pharisaism which crucified the Lord's anointed, and has continued to attack the spiritual idea from his day to this. When we humbly learn that righteousness (right knowing) is in and of God alone, and never apart from Him, that there is no individuality except that which He creates, then we shall triumphantly reverse these pitfalls into blessed opportunities for scaling the mount of revelation, and for bringing forth the fruits of true righteousness.
Mrs. Eddy's references testify to the fact that all great prophets in the Scriptures did not simply sit down and enumerate the individual and national shortcomings of their time, and indicate drastic revolution as a remedy. They had, through their study and application of the Ten Commandments, discerned the spiritual facts of being to a greater extent than any one around them; and, so, from this spiritual altitude they were able to point out the consequences of sin, and show the way, not of revolution for one party, but of righteousness for all. They were even able to foreshadow the certain salvation of the world from this standpoint. In this same manner will Christian Scientists learn to prophesy rightly the individual and collective triumphs of their Cause over every attempted effort of organized evil to drown the voice of Truth.
The next mental attitude to be considered is that of judging. It is obvious that any judgment which is the outcome of self-righteousness must be erroneous. From this standpoint, which ignores the beam in its own eye, it attempts to apply the law to its brother. With the hypocrisy which resists every personal discomfort, this false judgment would go on increasing in emphasis, until evasion of the demands of Truth to turn the searchlight inwards would drive it to destroy every true idea. When Jesus healed the cripple at the pool of Siloam on the Sabbath day, and the Pharisees sought to kill him because he had acted in opposition to their empty traditions, he said, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." Jesus was so whole himself, and so conscious of that spiritual fact as the truth about man, that he could instantaneously bring that sense of wholeness to a brother's consciousness, thus proving the belief to be false that had claimed to cripple him. He who was able to discern between spiritual law and false tradition never failed to heal the one who was ready; and at the same time he himself was always delivered from those who opposed his mission.
We pass to the consideration of condemning. The false judgment that would bind an individual to sickness and sin will quite as certainly go the next step and condemn him for his condition, and then pass by on the other side. Yet, the "friend of publicans and sinners" said, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." Jesus was able, through his spiritual understanding, to rebuke sin and hypocrisy, always with the loving desire to bless the individual, never in self-defense or self-justification; he had secured a marvelous victory over human hatred when, on the cross, from the depths of his pure heart, he blessed his enemies. The loyal Christian Scientist, who strives to follow in the Master's footsteps, will be so certain of the ultimate salvation of the world that he will come to understand the righteousness which abides in the spiritual sense of Love, and which enables one to resist the temptation to indulge in destructive personal condemnation.
Having seen how an attitude of self-righteousness will produce erroneous prophecy, false judgment, and personal condemnation, it is easy to see how an individual, already off guard, would be deceived into mistaking his own human opinions for the counsel of the Lord. The Scriptures, from beginning to end, are full of differentiation between the counsels of men, which come to naught, and the wise counsel arrived at through earnestly seeking and knowing God. This is corroborated in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by the teaching that what saves mortals from the judgment, condemnation, and counsel of personal sense is Christian Science, the Comforter, which, through perfect Love, casts out fear, and sets men free to work out their own salvation.
The giving or accepting of false counsel logically involves "influencing or being influenced erroneously." It can thus be easily understood that right influence is contingent on, first, truth; secondly, judging that righteous judgment which breaks not the bruised reed and quenches not the smoking flax, until error is ready to fall at the feet of everlasting Love, and the victorious truth is revealed; thirdly, the spirit of salvation which brings to light the permanence of the perfect man, and leaves nothing to be condemned; fourthly, the wisdom which ever watchfully gathers the seeds of truth from divine Principle, and sows them under the same divine direction.
It is by some such study of the "Rule for Motives and Acts," in its most individual and at the same time in its widest aspects, that a member of The Mother Church will learn the real difference between righteousness and self-righteousness. To follow Jesus, who was "meek and lowly in heart," with singleness of purpose in this age, we must never lose sight of the inspiration gained through spiritual understanding of the Scriptures, as revealed in Christian Science,— the inspiration which makes us consecrated and fortified warriors. This inspiration will establish our Cause in that splendid sense of unity against which the lust and hypocrisy of human power may rise, only to fall in mute acknowledgment of Him before whom every knee shall bow.
When John wrote that we should "love one another," did he not mean that we should keep the quality of our love so pure that it should always be, to all men, the changeless effect of God, who first loved us? That message of the disciple "whom Jesus loved" reaches us to-day in "the sweet amenities of Love," defined by our Leader in this By-law; and it will remain with us to be demonstrated through the ages to come, until there shall be one fold and one shepherd in all Israel.
