Editorial June 12, 1909 Issue

THE SCIENCE OF TRUE REFORM

John B. Willis

Human experience presents us with no fact that is more pitiful than that of the apparent defeat of heroism. When men and women have worked faithfully and unselfishly for years, perchance, in the interest of a cause which ought to succeed, and finally lose courage and drop their hands because of the seeming fruitlessness of their efforts,—then one's heart can but grow heavy with its weight of disappointed hope, its protest against the wrong of the apparent failure of the right.

This has frequently been illustrated in the history of temperance reform. With a splendid devotion unnumbered brave spirits have struggled in the past, and are struggling today, to restrain the liquor traffic by hedging about the manufacture and sale of that which despoils the heart of its love, the home of its joy, the state of its integrity. With patient kindness and continuance they have tried to reawaken pride, to rekindle the flame of manhood, to reestablish the fallen ideal, and to fortify moral decision in the men and women who have become victims of drink; and yet how often they have been led to "give up" in utter discouragement. Looking at these and a thousand other heroisms of effort which have proved futile and inadequate, and knowing as they must that truth is mightier than error, that light always dispels darkness, the thoughtful can but realize that either the problems have not been understood, or else that the Principle by which alone they can be solved has not been rightly applied. Everything must be subject to Science, to Truth. "He is able to save unto the uttermost." Why this defeat?

In undertaking to answer this question it is essential for us to understand that while effects, phenomena, may be modified or shifted in their point and order of expression by direct address, they can be eliminated only by the removal of cause. We must also remember that all causation is mental, and hence that all cure or correction must be metaphysical, i.e., by "a scientific mental method" (Science and Health, p. 79). The embrace of these facts is all-inclusive, and every failure of heroism may be traced either to ignorance of them or to indifference to them upon the part of those who have been devoted to human betterment.

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"THE PURE IN HEART"
June 12, 1909
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