Article October 18, 1900 Issue

Change of Motive Power

BY S. C. D.

In the change of motive power from cable to electricity or, the Broadway surface line in New York City, what is probably one of the greatest of modern engineering feats is being finished with a rapidity that is wonderful, considering the obstacles that have to be overcome. This would be, in any event, a work of considerable magnitude, owing to the length of the road, but when one stops to think that the entire change is being made without the stoppage of a single car, in the midst of an enormous traffic, some idea may be formed of the difficulties encountered. It seems as though the workmen can hardly strike more than three blows of a hammer before they have to get out of the way of an approaching car.

To the casual pedestrian it all probably seems nothing but noise and confusion. The Christian Scientist, however, sees every outward phenomenon as typical of some mental condition, and so, in passing day by day, the busy scene seemed, to my thought, to illustrate the process of reconstruction through which we go while being changed from the material to the spiritual motive power. To our sense it often appears as though it would be more desirable if while undergoing this transformation we might go away from everything and everybody, but this is, of course, impossible, for the work extends over the entire length and breadth of our nature. As Goethe says: "Talent develops itself in solitude; character in the stream of life." It is in the stress and struggle of every-day life, while all its problems go over us, that the change is made, and those busy workmen, our thoughts, have to learn many a lesson in patience by standing aside while some material experience goes by. But if the work progresses steadily, at last we shall see "the way of holiness" appearing, and we shall find that we have been entirely changed from the old to the new.

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