Editorial February 8, 1913 Issue

THE FLAWLESS LINK

John B. Willis

All science is exacting, and in this sense intolerant. Christian Science consents to no imperfection for the reason that it is scientific, conformed to the perfect order of Truth's manifestation, and a moment's thought will lead one to see that all harmony and progress is directly dependent upon this invariable integrity of the source of being. Science can overlook no flaw or fault, and this must have been clear to the ancient worthies who instituted the requirement that every offering unto God should be without spot or blemish.

The existence of flaws explains all human ills, and this comes home to one as he witnesses the making of the anchor chains for one of our mammoth modern ships. The process is absorbingly interesting. The clever manipulation of the huge links as they are welded and finished, and the swarthy men swinging their mighty hammers with rhythmic beat in the glow of the roaring furnaces, constitute a bit of splendid team work, and the result seems perfect,—but is it? The appeal here is to the imagination. Instantly we are looking upon a raging sea as it lashes a lee shore toward which a giant vessel is perchance slowly drifting. Bravely the towering waves are faced, but no headway is made. As a last hope the anchors are cast, and as their flukes grip the rocks the supreme test of every link is at hand. Will the chains bear the tremendous strain? If there is a flaw in a single link, a mere air bubble unexpelled in the welding, then the strength of a thousand other links in the mighty cable will not avail, and an unpicturable disaster may follow. Again and again the towering waves rush to the assault, but if every link be true, their violence is in vain.

The chain with an imperfect link speaks for unbalanced character, for some lack of integrity, a consent to something which is unscientific, untrue. It may not be noticeable to the many—a moment's indulgence, a little reserve of faith, a flavor of selfishness, ignorance, or dishonesty, a single carelessness or forgetfulness—how trivial these things seem! and yet the link in which one such fault is found becomes the measure of efficiency in crucial moments, though otherwise the chain be splendidly strong.

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