"I Know that I ought to be healed of resentment," people frequently say. They then go to work to dissipate resentment as though it were a cause instead of an effect. Resentment is always the effect of believing oneself or another to have been injured or unjustly treated in some fashion. In fact, people with a keen sense of justice and fair play are more likely to note resentment than those less ethically sound. As with other untoward situations, the root of the trouble has to be uncovered and destroyed; and Christian Science does this, healing any sense of injury, so that not a vestige of excuse for indulging resentment remains.
In the Scriptures, especially in the teachings of Christ Jesus, we learn that we must not injure our neighbor; we must not even mete out that inexorable code of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." We must love our neighbor as ourselves, and do good to them that hate us, in accordance with that spiritually sound precept of our Master's, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
The complete revelation of the Science of Christianity to our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, was needed, however, to make it clear that we not only must refrain from injuring others, but must understand the impossibility of God's children doing so any more than does God Himself, since man is the image and likeness of his Maker. This lifts us above the scars of conflict and makes forgiveness not only easier but inevitable, for, however persistent the false beliefs and bitter the struggle, Love is the only power.
