True Relationship

THERE is nothing with which mankind is more closely concerned than with the question of true relationship. To understand its meaning and thus be able to work out, in daily living, harmonious association with others is what most men consider one of their greatest problems. Always to solve this question properly is indeed of paramount importance. The failure to bring about right relations among men has resulted in most of that which is deplorable in world conditions to-day.

Almost every one will admit that the greatest obstacle to the realization of true relationship is selfishness. Men have been so largely seeking their own good, striving for their own advantage,—giving comparatively so little thought to the needs and desires of others,—that a true sense of kinship has been sadly lacking in human affairs. Selfishness as a deterrent to harmonious associations is quite readily discerned, and every Christian will acknowledge that to practice the Golden Rule is the way to overcome the difficulty. For more than nineteen hundred years men have been reaching out for an understanding of just how to do this, of just the way in which to do as they would be done by; and their prayers have been answered in the revelation of Christian Science.

This perfect, God-given Science teaches plainly what all true relationship is. Indeed, from one viewpoint its entire instruction is the elucidation of this subject; and it defines it in myriad ways. In “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 151) Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes clearly: “God is our Father and our Mother, our Minister and the great Physician: He is man’s only real relative on earth and in heaven. David sang, ‘Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.'” Then the knowledge of God as “man’s only real relative” must include the understanding of all true relationship. No association among men can therefore bring out perfect harmony which does not take this great truth into consideration, which does not base its understanding of kinship on what is thus revealed.

It would certainly seem as though all men would hasten to accept this wonderful fact that God, the infinite good, is All-in-all to man, since the full realization of this would immediately bring into evidence all blessedness. And yet, even Christian Scientists do not always see quickly that this relationship with God necessarily involves all right relationship. Instead, when they first meet with Mrs. Eddy’s statement that God “is man’s only real relative on earth and in heaven,” they are apt to think that to admit this would be to separate them from those whom they already know and love. On the contrary, it really opens the way to finding all included in perfect relationship. At the same time it teaches the blessed method of learning and demonstrating this relationship, as well as of refusing to accept any sense of unity for themselves or their brother which does not measure up to true kinship as found in God, infinite good.

Christian Science shows the manner in which to contemplate this truth about relationship. It teaches the way to allow thought to unfold into the larger understanding of what this divine unity with God means. It tells us to think of God’s glorious qualities; to think of His intelligence and wisdom, His goodness, His grace, His loveliness with all its wonders; and then to dwell with the all-satisfying truth that since man is related to God, he is related to all these perfections, and to naught else.

Who would not rejoice to learn that in reality he belongs only to God; that he has no relationship in reality with anything that is not true and good, grand and noble, intelligent and wise? Who would not cling to this method which will bring him into the consciousness of himself and his brothers as the perfect image and likeness of all good? Continually to prove that all true relationship includes only that which is Godlike and pure, wise and holy, loving and true, is also to win that unselfishness which always seeks its own in another’s good.

All this sounds very simple in theory, but as the Christian Scientist strives to put it into practice, all sorts of difficulties claim to present themselves to him. Although he may theoretically believe that man’s relationship to God always involves perfect relationship everywhere, he still seems much given to considering both himself and his brother as material and mortal, as sick and sinning, as having each a mind of his own. He is therefore confronted with an apparent array of human opinions and desires, with phase after phase of false material selfhood.

Instead of turning steadfastly to the truth of true relationship as revealed in Christian Science and letting that rebuke and correct all that is wrong in his own thinking and acting, he is often tempted to blame his brother for his own mental discomfort. He longs to be unselfish and loving, but because he does not turn resolutely from material sense testimony and base his conclusions on the truth that God “is man’s only real relative,” he is assailed either by the false responsibility that he must pursue his brother until that brother measures up to his sense of righteousness, or that he must leave his brother with all his apparent faults entirely alone, and so be unloving to him.

In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 6) Mrs. Eddy gives us the following heart-satisfying statement: “Divine Love corrects and governs man.” We therefore need never be disturbed about our brother. We may always flee into the “secret place of the most High,” where we and our brother are safe in the blessedness of our perfect relationship with God and with each other! Thus, God-governed, we shall speak when a word will help our brother, or be silent when silence is the part of wisdom. Above all, we shall rebuke our own sense of any apparent error, wherever it may seem to be manifested, resting serene in the confident assurance that true relationship is here and now the fact of God’s creation, and that all men must finally come to know and express the joyous truth that God is indeed “man’s only real relative on earth and in heaven.”