A superficial consideration of Mrs. Eddy's statements may sometimes distort them into endorsements of easy-going standards of human conduct. A viewpoint confused by self-will and clouded with materiality may find in them excuses for tarrying a little longer in the flesh. But when such statements are pondered in connection with the spirit of her teachings, and when their underlying truths are sought with the desire to relinquish and not condone materiality, they are always found to be incentives to the gain of absolute spiritual consciousness.
A standard of self-appraisal set by Mrs. Eddy for her followers is found on page 362 of "Miscellaneous Writings," where she says that "pleasure is no crime except when it strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens the activities of virtue." The least knowledge of Christian Science soon convinces one that anything that fosters dependence upon sensuality or false stimulation perpetuates the influence of carnal desires. Here is obviously a definite ban against the grosser forms of material indulgence and an insistence upon a high moral code. But what is it that "lessens the activities of virtue"?
The word "virtue" is derived from vir, man; and one of the two Greek words used in the New Testament to designate virtue means, literally, manhood. To the Christian Scientist this is deeply significant, for, since he has learned and proved something of man's present spiritual perfection in divine Science, real manhood has become to him far more than is expressed by even the highest type of humanity.
