Looking Always For Good

In a very brief yet very great epistle, St. Paul writes thus to Titus: “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; … They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him.” In the greatest epistle of modern times, Mrs. Eddy writes thus to the world: “Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence,—our health, our longevity, and our Christianity” (Science and Health, p. 167). Christian Science teaches that God is good, that God is All; good must therefore be the only power, the only presence in the universe; good must be the sole manifestation of that truth which Jesus of Nazareth brought to suffering humanity nineteen hundred years ago, as he walked and talked among men of earth; that truth which dispels completely the dreams of error and which “shall not pass away.”

He who looks for good never sees evil. He who looks for good is a worthy example of ceaseless activity, a tireless worker in the fields which are “white already to harvest.” To him good is the manifestation of the one Mind, of the perfect Love, and the real Life. To him good is the parent of spiritual joy, of holy freedom, of boundless dominion. His labors are ever in behalf of that realization, inspiring the saying which is written, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. … Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” His thoughts are directly tributary to God himself, “being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.” How true, then, that “unto the pure all things are pure”!

Christian Science declares that the belief in the reality of evil is illegitimate, that it is a stupendous mistake, and that weighed in the balance with good it is found so woefully wanting that it at once resolves itself into nothingness. Christian Science, based on naught but good, proves by its works that evil is like the darkness of midnight, or the mist of the morning, which flees away as the sunlight of Truth penetrates human consciousness. Handling, as it does, so clearly and so beautifully the claims of good and of evil, it reiterates constantly and vehemently the words of Christ Jesus and those of the apostle, “No man can serve two masters: … Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

To look for good and only good is the solemn obligation which rests upon Christian Scientists who conscientiously hold office in the service of the Master. May this obligation never be forgotten, never be violated, but may its sacred purpose be first and foremost in every ambition, every determination, and every striving which crosses our mental threshold! Living up to our highest discernment of good, obtained through a constant and a sincere study of the Bible and our text-book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” we begin to understand people and things as they are,—the obedient children of God, the eternal handiwork of the great “I am.” “Here a little, and there a little,” the omnipotence of good will appear, the illusion of evil will disappear, and the kingdom of harmony will be at hand. “Here a little, and there a little,” God’s own ideas, revealing “all the glories of earth and heaven and man” (Science and Health, p. 264), will dissolve the clouds of troubled sense, the truth will shine “unto the perfect day,”

And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.