"Talking it Over"

"Let's talk it over." We are all familiar with the expression, and some of us have been unwise enough to adopt the policy of talking over our troubles, and have even imagined that in thus imposing our burdens upon others, we have lightened them for ourselves. But Christian Science uncovers the error of this course and it is seen to be a subterfuge of mortal mind, whose object always is to increase, never to decrease or even to mitigate, evil. It is a false philosophy, very apparently false, when we face it fearlessly.

Error has no existence in reality, its only pretended existence is in the mortal concept, the counterfeit. Now, be the trouble physical, mental, or moral, what does this indiscriminate talking it over do? It fixes the lines of the gruesome picture in one's own false consciousness, and gives the sympathetic listener a distorted image to carry away to others.

Circumstances may sometimes impel a pardonable confession of weakness or fear from one who solicits the counsel of experience; but only selfishness could induce us to darken our neighbor's vision with the rehearsal of that which seems to obscure our own, and especially if he himself is perchance struggling to rise above the mists. At the very best, it is a longing for human sympathy, a desire to have some one bear for us or help us to bear a burden that should not be borne, but disowned and at once and forever cast away.

What a different impulse prompts us to flood the life of another with the sunlight of Truth, with our highest thoughts, our cheeriest words, our most generous deeds. What an offering upon Truth's altar would be a single day lived in strict obedience to Paul's injunction, "Lie not one to another," a day in which we uttered not one word but that voiced our highest understanding of Truth.

We have been taught that error is mindless and powerless, therefore it ought to be speechless. We can still its babbling mischief-making only by persistently and prayerfully knowing and declaring in word and habit, that error cannot voice itself to us, or about us. It will plead in the same garrulous way it pleaded with the Master to be let alone; and in the same way pretend to recognize the messenger of Truth, and we must just as instantly and with no less authority repeat his command: "Hold thy peace!" He "suffered not the devils to speak." Evil was then and is now dumb in the presence of God. Until we can bless others with true words, it were better we should maintain a possibly surprising, but certainly wise and healthful, silence, and so refuse ever to "talk it over."

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Our German Periodical

April 4, 1903

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