THERE is nothing with which mankind is more closely concerned than with the question of true relationship. To understand its meaning and thus be able to work out, in daily living, harmonious association with others is what most men consider one of their greatest problems. Always to solve this question properly is indeed of paramount importance. The failure to bring about right relations among men has resulted in most of that which is deplorable in world conditions to-day.
Almost every one will admit that the greatest obstacle to the realization of true relationship is selfishness. Men have been so largely seeking their own good, striving for their own advantage,—giving comparatively so little thought to the needs and desires of others,—that a true sense of kinship has been sadly lacking in human affairs. Selfishness as a deterrent to harmonious associations is quite readily discerned, and every Christian will acknowledge that to practice the Golden Rule is the way to overcome the difficulty. For more than nineteen hundred years men have been reaching out for an understanding of just how to do this, of just the way in which to do as they would be done by; and their prayers have been answered in the revelation of Christian Science.
This perfect, God-given Science teaches plainly what all true relationship is. Indeed, from one viewpoint its entire instruction is the elucidation of this subject; and it defines it in myriad ways. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 151) Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes clearly: "God is our Father and our Mother, our Minister and the great Physician: He is man's only real relative on earth and in heaven. David sang, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.'" Then the knowledge of God as "man's only real relative" must include the understanding of all true relationship. No association among men can therefore bring out perfect harmony which does not take this great truth into consideration, which does not base its understanding of kinship on what is thus revealed.
