We are all road builders. The prophet Isaiah urged, "Prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones."Isa. 62:10; Morbidly inquisitive, destructively critical, or idly speculative thoughts are sharp stones tossed before our brothers' feet. Conversely, compassionate, spiritually uplifting thoughts help to clear the pathway for others as well as ourselves.
Christian Science emphasizes the universal brotherhood of man under the fatherhood and motherhood of God. It stresses the importance of men's kindly concern for one another. Love must be outgoing if it is not to become ingrowing. It is outwardly expressed through Christly, impartial benevolence, brotherly cooperation, and healing realization of spiritual reality. In her Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy states, "Holding the right idea of man in my mind, I can improve my own, and other people's individuality, health, and morals."Mis., p. 62;
Christian Scientists have a spiritual and moral obligation to adhere to the true sense of man as incorporeal and perfect, to view him as God's reflection, embodying every quality of divinity such as wisdom, purity, goodness, health. What appears to veil this correct view is the false, educated belief that matter defines and constitutes identity, and that it is the creator and eventual destroyer of existence. Christly love and discernment are needed to behold man as the beloved ideal of God, controlled and animated by the mighty spiritual energies of divine Love.
Even a faint glimpse of what true manhood represents in its stainless purity is sufficient to open a window upon heaven itself, upon the spiritual universe peopled with individual beings acting always under Mind's supreme authority. However brief this view, it inspires one with such love for God and man that renewed efforts will be made to maintain it more consistently, despite the sometimes impressive testimony of material sense.
Paul counseled the Christian workers in Rome, "Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way."Rom. 14:13; Accepting this means not that judicious discrimination between right and wrong should cease but that personal bias in its exercise should be eliminated, not that one should be blind to obvious faults of character or temperament but that self-righteous condemnation should cease.
Alert Christian Scientists see the fallacy of casually judging as to possible reasons for other Scientists' difficulties, being curious concerning their nature or speculating on their outcome. Such erroneous mental standpoints often result in what might be termed meddlesome malpractice. The morbidly interested bystander may, in effect, put "an occasion to fall in his brother's way," make his path more difficult by accepting the evidence of sickness instead of rejecting it.
Christian Scientists have a tender responsibility toward those who may be struggling to gain spiritual dominion over physical problems. They need to be alert in not permitting suggestions of medical theories to influence their viewpoints. Thought should be cleansed of unwholesome, material concepts of man by refusing to give power or identity to evil, by understanding that there is no matter in man to produce disease or disability, and no man in matter to express such illusions. If the right idea of man is not enthroned in consciousness, we can have small part in smoothing troublesome pathways and lifting burdens of disease from humanity.
No verdict of incurable or inveterate sickness can be pronounced upon man, for in reality he is the constant, spiritual representative of perfect Life, God, and therefore beyond the reach of such condemnation. No curse of separation from harmony can rest upon man, for divinely considered, he is the immediate, eternal beneficiary of the heavenly Father's blessing of well-being and immortality. The Christly understanding of true identity will aid immeasurably in removing deeply entrenched hindrances to others' demonstration of health.
The contribution to healing, the comforting, uplifting effect of such unselfed prayerful thinking, is illustrated in the following experience of a Christian Scientist. For several years this young woman suffered from an open sore on her nose that grew progressively worse. Her burden was, to begin with, a twofold one: first, fear of the condition with its nagging threat of incurability; secondly, fear of others' thoughts, particularly the possible criticism of Christian Science and of herself as a Christian Scientist, for although the sore was kept bandaged, she was aware of curious glances from business and social acquaintances as well as from strangers.
With the prayerful aid of a Christian Science practitioner, together with her own consistent work, she gradually began to see that it was not a condition of matter that stood in need of healing so much as a false concept of herself as material. However distressing and frightening the symptoms appeared at times, she clung to the absolute truth that real, spiritual substance is incorruptible and indestructible. She worked to know that the circulation of Christly truths in thought must inevitably remove the claims of morbid accumulations and secretions, that physical sensation and mental delusions had no place in her existence as the individualized, reflected glory of divine Life and Love. Through the growing realization of such spiritual facts the fear of the physical condition abated.
More difficult was the healing of her concern for others' thinking. But when the practitioner pointed out to her that by reason of man's wholly spiritual nature and condition her own actual identity could not be seen or thought of materially, either by herself or others, this fear also vanished. She found she could be joyous in spite of the evidence and unselfconscious in the presence of others despite their obvious concern. Slowly but inevitably the complete, permanent healing came, leaving no disfiguring scars, either physical or mental.
During these several years of spiritual growth she was aware of the loving, unvoiced encouragement of her Christian Science friends. In her own words, "Another phase of the experience I'm grateful for is the support I felt from members of my own branch church. Although I never discussed the problem with any of them, I always felt their love, never feeling in the slightest any sense of condemnation."
Mrs. Eddy beautifully describes the tender care of God: "Whatever obstructs the way,—causing to stumble, fall, or faint, those mortals who are striving to enter the path,—divine Love will remove; and uplift the fallen and strengthen the weak."Mis., p. 328;
Our duty to God and to mankind is to reflect consciously and steadily in every direction of thought the uplifting, strengthening power of divine Love. In proportion as we measure up to this ideal, we help clear the roadway for many a troubled fellowman, and we become obedient to the spirit and letter of Christ Jesus' instruction: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."John 13:34.
