The Golden Rule and The Glass of Milk

NOT long after moving into a new apartment, I met the person who lived across the hall--a very friendly, earnest young woman who told me she'd recently "discovered" the Bible. She was eager to discuss Scriptural passages, and we had some interesting talks.I'll never forget the day she came to my door with a glass of milk in her hand. "Here's some milk, she said. m trying to follow the Golden Rule, and I wanted a glass of milk, so I brought you one. The Golden Rule, of course, is one of Christ Jesus' most famous teachings. "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise, we read in Luke's Gospel. In other words, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. My neighbor's gesture was sincere. It was also touching. There was only one problem: I didn't want a glass of milk right then. I've thought about this experience over the years and about the purpose of the Golden Rule. Was Jesus really telling us to give others the things that we de-sire? Wasn't he instead telling us to express the qualities that we want expressed toward us? Don't we want, more than anything else, to be loved? Then we must love others. And true Christly love goes even beyond being kind, patient, and forgiving. It requires seeing others correctly. We can learn from the Bible that we are all created by God, Spirit, infinite Love, in His image. This means that man must really be spiritual and infinitely loving. Granted, this doesn't appear to be true. But just as we must use a deeper, spiritual sense to understand the true meaning of Jesus' teachings, so we must use spiritual sense to understand the true nature of man. This is what the Master did. He looked beyond the report of the material senses, which he knew to be limited, and saw that God's man is actually free of sickness and sin. And Jesus brought this to light by healing others. Christian Science helps us understand what Jesus knew of man's true nature as God's child. This Science also helps us see how to do as Jesus did. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, states: "In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow,--thoughts w hich presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,--perfect God and perfect man,--as the basis of thought and demonstration. People want to be freed from the limitations and suffering of material existence--from the false concept of man as "fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. And the world desperately needs to be rescued from the moral, societal, and environmental destruction brought on by today's materialism and greed. The fact is that we can find this freedom as we gain "Christlike understanding. It's essential, then, that we begin to grasp the profound fact of spiritual existence. We can start by obeying the Golden Rule, by loving others and identifying them as they truly are--spiritual and perfect. This doesn't mean we're to ignore the evil we see. But it does mean that we can take an active role in destroying it through our higher concept of God and man. Our work in this direction will be a practical help in bringing healing to the world.