The individual studying ideas without putting them into practical effect may become a recluse, imprisoned within a narrow objective world of his own construction. The individual cultivating persons and neglecting ideas, on a shifting stage of inconsistencies and contradictions, though he perfect his art as an observer and analyst of mankind, raises no standard of exalted purpose. He who would learn, and in turn enlighten, cannot live merely in a world of ideas divorced from action. He who would reach the fountain of Truth and be of value to his fellows, can do so alone by preserving the ideal and maintaining the vision which are the outcome of love for God and man.
Christ Jesus dwelt with ideas, but his was no objective world of the recluse. He abode in the consciousness of spiritual reality, but he never wearied of showing men what spiritual knowing accomplishes when consistently applied to human affairs. He spent long hours alone communing with divine Principle, but he moved freely among the people, entering everywhere into the intimacy of their daily lives and common problems. He never abandoned his identity as the Son of God, yet spoke of himself continually as the Son of man. Thus in compassion and understanding, he neglected no opportunity, turned aside from no genuine demand to make spiritual power available to those in need. As a result, the sick and sinning were healed and redeemed by his presence among them. To him the divinely ideal and the practically real were one; he acknowledged no process, accepted no inevitable delay; overcame all enmities, even the last and most deadly, the belief that hatred could temporarily destroy him. Working from the basis of Principle, he brought into operation the law of supremacy over every phase of evil.
With relentless penetration, Mary Baker Eddy asks this question on page 117 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany": "'What went ye out for to see?' A person, or a Principle? Whichever it be, determines the right or the wrong of this following." In this choice, the whole course of men's lives and the molding of their characters in great things as in small, are decided. If it is Principle they choose, then divinity will rule their destinies and guide their judgments. Their intent will be not merely to please themselves or another; they will be found waiting upon God and allowing the orderly unfoldment of His law to take place in obedience and brotherhood. But if it is persons they choose, then theirs will be the narrowing path of selfishness and partiality, and inevitably their judgment will be deflected, their vision blurred, their freedom curtailed. They will find themselves elated by human triumphs and disturbed or embittered by human defeats. They will believe that not Principle but persons rule the destiny of their home, their church, or their country; that the fate of the world is in the control not of Principle but of persons. We can always gauge whether Principle is at the helm of our thought by observing whether it is the universal establishment of justice, the rule of righteousness, the demonstration of Love, not the fulfillment of our own desires, the prosecution of human will, which is the primary purpose of our lives.
