Article May 6, 1911 ISSUE

NO GOOD THING WITHHELD

ABBIE CRANDALL BACHMANN

Not long ago, in trying to become conscious of the oneness and allness of God and the nothingness of the claim of error for a friend, my eyes rested on this sentence in Science and Health (p. 481): "The forbidden fruit of knowledge, against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death." The thought immediately came to me that this testimony of error was simply our declaration of the physical pains and pleasures as something; the voicing of our discords, while wisdom commands us to voice the truth, and the truth makes us free. In the beginning of our journey from sense to Soul our first lessons teach us how to "silence the witness" (Ibid., p. 417), and this destroys the evidence. This seems hard to do at first, for we seem to enjoy voicing our pains; yet every time we indulge this false sense we are partaking of the knowledge which is forbidden.

My experience with this forbidden fruit was truly a fulfilment of Scripture, for everything material to which I clung fell to pieces. I have been learning that as the understanding of Truth has unfolded in my consciousness, no good thing is denied God's idea, and we do reap the fruits of right thinking; a scientific knowledge does produce its own fruits, which are health, happiness, contentment, and harmonious action. There is nothing to forbid the knowledge of right understanding, which brings us abundant fruit in every walk in life. We find that much which we have learned in material ways only leads into bondage. Those of us who are honestly and earnestly striving to press toward the mark are willing to let go of false beliefs and to stop voicing false testimony, for we have learned that we reap as we sow.

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