Few were ever more appreciative of honest worth than Mrs. Eddy. Recognizing so clearly as she did that God is the one and only source of good and that goodness is entirely an impersonal asset, she was able to discern the good reflected by others and to appreciate the effort which lay behind the achievement. The divine qualities manifest in another's life always received her just commendation, while she never hesitated to expose the spurious beliefs which counterfeited these qualities. Throughout her writings she does not cease to extol honesty, purity, humility, affection, steadfastness, courage, love,— all attributes of divine Principle,— and to hold them before the thought of the reader as estimable and worthy, while their opposites—dishonesty, impurity, self-assertiveness, lovelessness, and so on—are pointed out as unworthy and censurable.
Charity, that is, the charity which is love, the reflection of divine Principle, is never narrow in its outlook. Its vision is wide and comprehensive, —ever on the alert to recognize right motives and to apportion due credit for them. Charity does not confine its approbation to one's own class or kindred; it is able to esteem righteousness wherever found, even in those who may believe themselves to be one's enemies. Mrs. Eddy illustrates what is meant when she writes in "Retrospection and Introspection"(p. 29), "I esteem all honest people, and love them, and hold to loving our enemies and doing good to them that 'despitefully use you and persecute you.'" And our Leader was able to do this because she saw beyond the errors of human belief into the eternal realities of divine Being. Perceiving that good alone is real, she concluded that evil in its every form is unreal. Demonstrating what she knew, she was able to apportion credit to whoever was manifesting good, be he friend or so-called foe.
"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory," wrote Paul to the Philippians, "but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." What an exhortation to charity, to humility, to brotherliness! Are we measuring up to Paul's standard? Are we measuring up to his standard in some small degree even among those in our own churches, to say nothing of others who may not understand anything about Christian Science? Has it ever occurred to us that every Christian Scientist, that is, every one who has some demonstrable understanding of the allness of good and the unreality of evil, as revealed by Christian Science, is needed in the world to-day? The moment any one begins to understand the allness of God, good, and the unreality of evil and to demonstrate what he knows, that instant his value has increased, it might be said beyond estimate, because he has made a commencement no longer to argue on the side of evil, but to put his weight on the side of good. He has become a positive factor in the redemption of the world from the belief of evil; and as such should be given every encouragement.
