Article July 9, 1910 Issue

SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT

CHARLOTTE PAULSEN.

Every experience which comes to us gives us an opportunity for self-examination and correction. As was the case with Job, that which we greatly feared may have come upon us, or there may have been other elements of thought in our consciousness which needed correction in order to make us see things in their proper relation. These experiences, if rightly viewed, lift us into a higher state of consciousness and help us to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. When we recognize this to be true, and appreciate the gain to ourselves, then we awaken to a clearer spiritual perception and are quickened to divine impulses which help us to discern and destroy manifestations of error as soon as they appear.

In our daily experiences no incident occurs but that it is the outward sign of some thought we entertain. If it be good, we may rest in the consciousness that it is of God; but if it is discordant, then we need to rebuke and destroy the error. Too often it is a very tiny seed of error which like the acorn grows into a tall oak, and it is our indifference to a slight error in the premise which enables that error to grow unchecked until it has become a mightly fear. Christian Scientists need to heed the lesson of "a stitch in time saves nine," and so be prepared for a larger demonstration of this truth which makes men free. The following experiences will illustrate how the recognition and destruction of what seemed a trivial error brought an awakened consciousness and destruction of a greater and more serious error of the same type.

At one time in the writer's experience there seemed to be a large problem which required solution. Awakened by past mistakes and their consequences, there came a recognition of the need for more consecrated mental effort, and a disposition to weigh the significance of every little incident which might point the way to some conclusion of the error and a restoration of harmony. A way opened, but human will and pride were unguardedly permitted to assert their false claims and the proposition was negatived without its having received close consideration. Thereupon followed a succession of unpleasant incidents, trivial happenings which nevertheless tended to bring confusion and irritability and censure into an otherwise harmonious household. The error was left undenied the first time it occurred, until, as each occasion grew more serious, a specific denial that God's idea could cause destruction and impatience brought with it the declaration, "I can hold fast that which is good!" Speedily an illumination of the great life-problem appeared, and with the desire to hold fast all that was good, pride and self-will were put under foot, and the way which Love opened was undertaken. That, however, was but a beginning—as Mrs. Eddy tells us, "Love is not hasty to deliver us from temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified" (Science and Health, p. 22).

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