Article February 14, 1901 Issue

Discouragement

BY HENRY C. LAWRENCE.

In traveling the pathway which Christian Science points out to us as the one road to heaven or harmony, we seem to be persistently beset by a claim or condition which says we are not advancing, are not doing our work, are not living as we should and cannot, therefore we may as well stop trying, go back to the old way of living according to the dictates of human sense and self-will, where we are free to carry out the suggestions of selfishness.

This condition presents itself to be overcome in our physical, moral, and spiritual growth. One under treatment is perhaps discouraged because he is not at once freed from his physical bondage. One may be disappointed because he does not bring Truth into his business or daily work as he had hoped. We are impatient because we do not bring it more into our lives and live up to our highest apprehension of it. We fail to express what we already comprehend, and then are tempted to give up because we do not gain a clearer understanding. Should the one in physical bondage for years, who has perhaps tried all other healing methods only to receive the verdict "incurable," be discouraged because under Christian Science treatment he is not healed in a few weeks or months, or even a year? Should he who for ten, twenty, thirty years has conducted his business along generally accepted lines be disappointed because he cannot at once place it on the basis of Science, and conduct all matters according to its Principle? Should we who all our lifetime have been slaves of the material senses, serving them, and believing them to be our masters and our all, despair because we cannot in a moment reach that spiritual understanding and manhood which knows only strength, peace, and harmony? Should we not rather rejoice that in the Stygian darkness in which we have been left Christian Science comes offering one gleam of hope, one ray of light, which, if followed, leads unto "the perfect day"?

Discouragement would have us believe we do not reflect the one Intelligence, that we are too dull to comprehend simple Truth, thus tempting us to give up the talent we have to an unreal master, forgetting that by putting this little understanding into practice we must surely gain more. Discouragement is impatience, haste to tread where we have not conquered, to occupy a place we have not proven our fitness to fill. A writer has aptly said, "Impatience is doubt," — doubt of God's willingness to help us, doubt of His presence and power, doubt of His love, when we are told "God is Love." Did the Master ever doubt, think you? Was he discouraged because his disciples were apparently baffled by the demon of insanity? True he said, "O ye of little faith," but did this imply a faltering of his own faith? No; he never faltered, never failed, and where others doubted, tenderly brought them back to a steadfast trust in a loving Father, constantly our strength and help.

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