Editorial September 24, 1904 Issue

The Equipment of Experience

The web of human life is of so involved a pattern, and the countless threads which enter into its composition are thrown by so many hands, that much of it may remain a meaningless and unintelligible tangle for most of us until that hour of spiritual awakening which illumines not only the path of the future but the experiences of the past.

Nothing more surely saps energy and interdicts progress in any line of endeavor than the depressing confusion which results from the inability to perceive the value and true relations of whole chapters, perchance, of our life history; and one of the earliest satisfactions of those who have received the light of Christian Science is realized in the discovery that many an experience which has hitherto meant nothing more than disappointment and defeat, now assumes new and significant relations to their spiritual life and usefulness. They perceive that things which they had always regarded as valueless, in fact as disabilities, when analyzed and understood through Christian Science, yield them a distinct gain,—add sensibly to their equipment for effective ministry to others.

Shorn of its deceptiveness by "the sword of Spirit," the most regrettable incident of our history may thus add to the intelligence of our diagnosis of those abnormal mental conditions which Jesus has said we should heal. The personal advantage is therefore doubled; we find an interpretation of the advantage is therefore doubled; we find an interpretation of the medley of our own past life, and this in turn furnishes us the wisdom by which we may penetrate the citadel of other lives; for it is thus we acquire the sympathetic touch, the quick discernment, the authoritative judgment which render it possible for us to serve at once, when otherwise we could only stand and wait.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

The Equipment of Experience

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access