Article November 27, 1909 Issue

PREVENTION

HELEN WARD BANKS.

Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (p. 369) that "the prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the preventive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Science;" and it is well for us to remember often that Christian Science in its common-sense workings can endorse the good old proverb, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. " Or, as some one has said in a less homely way, if we throw our sentinels far enough out to protect every way of access from the enemy, we do not need to repel an attack on the citadel. It is only when we let the foe slip past our outer guard, that we have to use more strenuous effort to drive him back from the last line of defenses.

On one side of a garden wall squashes had been planted, on the other side lay a loose pile of boards which had been thrown there from time to time until the convenient moment should arrive to have them made into kindling-wood. The squashes started to grow, but no sooner had the vines appeared above ground than they were met by hundreds of squash-bugs, which devoured them. The plants had both mental and manual care, but with no apparent good results. In the fall came the time for cutting up the wood, and as the boards were pulled out, one by one, there, making their winter home, were numberless squash-bugs.

As I turned away, I realized that this same thing had happened more than once. Too many times, mentally. I had let a destroying error breed on one side while I was working for protection on the other. Had I not sometimes left untouched a little hiding-place for fear, and then worked against the resulting inharmony? Had I not allowed discouragement a breeding-place, and then wondered why my courage was not greater? Had I not let sensitiveness creep in and hide, and then tried to heal a resultant misunderstanding? Had I not permitted self-ease, or apathy, or some sense of the material to lurk unseen, and then grieved over the slowness of growth in spiritual understanding? I had allowed error to entrench itself on one side of the fence, while I thought I was honestly working against its results on the other.

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