Article August 7, 1909 Issue

OVERCOMING

WILLIAM HART SPENCER

FOR long centuries mortal man has been circling around the outskirts of truth, with one hand reaching for the spiritual, and with the other grasping at matter for relief and happiness. Job said that "man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." This utterance is allied to the belief that matter is endowed with life within itself, a belief which is the basis for all the sin and misery in the world; and believing that it is its just due, accounts for the propensity of mortals to anticipate trouble. The seemingly real as well as the imaginary troubles with which this mortal sense is surrounded, are appalling,—every man and woman struggling with a seen or unseen foe; and wherever has been the human concept, has also been the cry for relief.

Nearly two thousand years ago, as we count time, he who called himself "the Son of man" said, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." The superficial thought of overcoming the world is to overcome that which is unpleasant and distasteful to mortal mind, leaving the world intact. If such a victory were possible, it would only be in degree and not in kind, as the desire is to satiate the carnal mind with the pleasant things of sense. Notwithstanding the experiences of the years, which have shown beyond measure that the pleasures of sense are not lasting, the average person is determined to experiment for himself, and not until the search for pleasure on the lower level has been proven to be "vanity," as Solomon expressed it, are mortals in a mood to see that the things of Spirit alone are of real value.

Jesus overcame the world by conquering and putting out the false human sense,—the lie about life in matter; and what was thus gained was not for himself alone, but that the men and women in this sin-ridden world, blinded to Truth, might be enlightened, and know that this human concept of existence is not God's idea. Therefore Jesus' victory stands, and always will stand, at the parting of the ways,—the dividing-line between mortal mind and Spirit. It is a wise man who will turn, as did the Master, "from earth to heaven, from sense to Soul" (Science and Health, p. 48), before he has drained the dregs of mortal pleasure; but sooner or later the desire for better things will come, and with the desire the wish spiritually to overcome the world.

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