Beruflich Dokumente
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CONTENTS
Two Roses . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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THE LAW OF KINDNESS
"T HY sins be forgiven thee!" When Jesus made this bold statement
to the sufferers who came asking him to have mercy upon them,
what authority had he to forgive sins? How could he forgive them? We
are taught in Christian Science that sins are forgiven only as they are
destroyed, and how can any one destroy the sins of others? How can
he bring about the mental condition in them which must accompany
such a change? In Christian Science we learn, too, that to forgive
never means to endure, but to do away with whatever is unlike God, to
put it out of consciousness; to give the offending one a new likeness in
our thought in place of the one formerly, and perhaps habitually, held
of him. We can give him a true concept of himself only by holding such
a concept in our own consciousness. Doing this, we exercise the same
authority that the Master possessed, authority attendant upon the
understanding that the true man reflects God. By seeing man in this
true light, as the perfect reflection of perfect Mind, Jesus could
pronounce the sin forgiven, wiped out, so far as his own consciousness
was concerned. This much one can do for another. Thus far is
atonement vicarious.
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hearts that man, God's image and likeness, must of necessity reflect
energy, humility, order, punctuality, consideration; and that by
reflecting these qualities ourselves we lift our brother, as Jesus did, to
the same desirable plane.
At first we hesitate to shut our eyes to the evil and see only the
good, because it seems false and unjust to do this. We want to enjoy a
righteous indignation because of our brother's actions, and a feeling of
superiority because our ways differ so vastly from his. Let us take
heed! Do we think we stand? But self-gratulation to the disparagement
of our brother is greatly to our discredit. "Thou that judgest doest the
same things." By refusing to recognize sin in the woman taken in
adultery, Jesus not only rescued her from her tormentors, — from the
thoughts of those who condemned her, — but we are safe in inferring
that he also changed the whole course of her life when his loving
assurance, "Neither do I condemn thee," was followed by the gentle
yet imperative command, "Go, and sin no more."
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a false exhibition of force and energy, the results of which are sure to
be bad.
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THE LAW OF KINDNESS
W HEN for purely personal reasons laws are made by men, these
human enactments often seem to other men to be unreasonable
and arbitrary, and they are sometimes resisted. Hence there has grown
up a wrong sense of law, and when we speak of the law of God it is
frequently conceived to be an arbitrary demand on man of the personal
will of the almighty Lawmaker. But when we rightly understand God as
Principle, and that "righteousness and judgment are the habitation of
his throne," we then conceive of God's law as the uniform and
consistent expression of His true nature, and no longer think of it as a
rule of action enforced on man and supported by penalties for
disobedience. When one becomes assimilated to God, is harmonious
with divine Principle and accordant with the nature of the creator, then
in his life appears the uniform occurrence of characteristics such as
were manifest in Christ Jesus, who came not to do his own will, but to
express the will or character of God. Such a life manifests the divine
law, which is ever the same. "The world passeth away, and the lust
thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."
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THE LAW OF KINDNESS
But in the daily battle of life there are the wounded and broken-
hearted. A smile gleaming from the innocent face of a child has
comforted one bereaved; the courtesy of a stranger has reassured a
man almost discouraged; a pleasant word, a kind inquiry, a friendly
look, a hearty greeting is often enough to redeem a man from
loneliness and heart exile, and remind him that he belongs in the circle
of humanity and has his home with God's children. Even when rebuke
is needed the loving heart may give it and bless thereby. "Let the
righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness," said the psalmist; "and let
him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my
head."
Men are slowly learning the true method of reform as they labor
for the redemption of the world. Experience has shown that more good
may result from an insignificant kindness than from the most elaborate
ritual of punishment and cruelty. The punisher labors to satisfy himself
by taking vengeance upon the wrong-doer, but the kind man
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The cruel man wins hatred and distrust from men, and even
though by cruelty he thinks to do God a service, he does not balance
his account thus or win favor with God, for the divine methods are not
destructive and hurtful, but always methods of salvation. Therefore it
can be said, "How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore
the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings."
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I T may be a far cry from the bustle and hurry and striving of
twentieth-century living back to the garden of Eden, yet an honest
investigation for the cause of all the material sense of working and
accomplishing which results only in vanity and vexation of spirit, must
take us on such a journey. The promise of the serpent, "Ye shall be as
gods," is linked with the curse on mankind; the curse which
condemned mankind to toil without fruitage and laid upon woman the
burden of sorrow and bondage. The history of the race has inevitably
confirmed this partnership, for wherever mankind has turned from
obedience and service to the one God, the results of burden-bearing
and dissatisfaction and sorrow have invariably followed.
Mrs. Eddy, on page 263 of "Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures," writes: "Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to
be independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged
originators of something which Deity would not or could not create." It
is this egotistic belief in personal ability, capacity, and responsibility, of
intelligence and activity separated from God, which exposes the
business man to the harassment of anxiety, the housewife to the load
of care, and the thinker to the law of wearing out. On page 387 of
Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gives an efficient remedy for this false
sense of mental and physical energy: "When we realize that immortal
Mind is ever active, and that spiritual energies can neither wear out
nor can so-called material law trespass upon God-given powers and
resources, we are able to rest in Truth."
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activity, upon which we are drawing; all because we are absorbing the
material sense evidence, "Ye shall be as gods," instead of reflecting the
truth set forth in Jesus' words: "I can of mine own self do nothing."
"The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."
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TWO ROSES
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