Article July 4, 1908 Issue

A PARALLEL

CHARLES E. VAN BARNEVELD.

An ignorant workman was clumsily trying to push over a heavy stone with an iron bar, and making but little progress. A fellow-workman took the bar from him, pried up the stone, placed a small rock under it; pried further, and then placing a prop under his bar, by putting his weight on the other end he easily and quickly accomplished what the other had utterly failed to do. It was interesting to watch the puzzled look upon this man's face give way to one of dawning comprehension as he found after a few trials that, by properly adjusting the fulcrum of the lever, his strength, which unaided had proved insufficient, could be made to produce a lifting power far in excess of the requirements. This was evidently the first time he had come face to face with the application of a well-known law of mechanics, and his appreciation of it was evident.

Similarly, when mortal man is confronted with a problem which calls for the application of Christian Science, he is puzzled until there comes to him the first flash of apprehension. As he studies and faithfully applies its teaching, flash after flash of insight comes, thus clearing the way for the mental solution of his problem. Finally, "thought expands into expression" (Science and Health, p. 255), and that which seemed difficult or perhaps impossible is an accomplished fact. The willing student finds his range of usefulness extending rapidly, each problem solved brings increased confidence, until he realizes that Christian Science has made possible far more than even Archimedes, the inventor of the lever, dreamed of when he said (about 200 B.C.), "Give me where I may stand, and I will lift the world." Obviously this meant, Given a point outside the world for his fulcrum, and an external force sufficiently great, his lever would lift the world.

This world, which to human sense seems such a substantial, indisputable reality, is now generally recognized to be a thought-world, — the expression of human thought or belief. Says our Leader on page 484 of Science and Health, "The physical universe expresses the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals." Just how the thoughts of mortals compare with the thoughts of God in the esteem of the prophets of old is made very clear in Isaiah: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." With Christian Science (God's way) for the lever, reliance upon God's promises for the fulcrum, and spiritual understanding as the applied power, every condition of material thought, however heavy, may be lifted, thus proving the "superiority of spiritual power over material resistance" (Science and Health, p. 134).

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