"THERE should be no blot on the escutcheon of our Christliness when we offer our gift upon the altar." So Mrs. Eddy writes on page 86 in the chapter "Exemplification" in "Retrospection and Introspection." This is one of many passages in which she urges Christian Scientists to be true to their highest ideal of righteousness in their daily experience.
The scientific Christian tries always to keep his own thought free from any belief of sin, disease, and death. He knows that whatever he may be prompted to do for the betterment of mankind must be done, first of all. by establishing good in his own thinking, and eliminating from it all that is not good. If he would benefit the world by sharing the understanding of a supremely good God, which has come to him through the teaching of Christian Science, he must first accept and apply this teaching in every detail of his own experience; otherwise, he cannot expect to speak with the authority which constituted the power of Christ Jesus.
It is pleasant to feel that one has so much to give to one's fellow men in the hour of need; so much of consolation and of cheer, and of relief from suffering; but at the same time one must lift one's own eyes above the consideration of evil of any kind, as Jesus did, and in forgetfulness of self remember that "the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." We must, then, not only see what the Father does, but reflect it in our doing, as quickly as we can possibly adjust our thought to this divine ability. Only as day by day we express the serene love of the Father, the pure joy of spiritual consciousness, something, in fact, of "the beauty of holiness," will the healing rightness of divine revelation destroy for us the pretense of organized matter, with the strength of spiritual law.
