Article June 17, 1911 Issue

"THE CARNAL MIND"

RUTH INGRAHAM.

One afternoon, in trying to amuse a small and very wilful child who had been left in my care, I devised a plan which I felt sure would appeal to her little heart, and broached it to her, only to be met by a cold and stubborn refusal to cooperate. Quickly I felt a sense of resentment and a desire to conquer the child by force; but this feeling was instantly followed by one of shame to think I was capable of holding such a sentiment toward a child, and I simply left her to her own devices so far as was practicable, respecting a certain right of choice within her. At that moment it was clear to me that the same element in her which had resisted me, was present in me to resent that resistance—that the one evil, or mortal mind, had used each of us as a channel. In a further endeavor to disassociate evil from personality, and to realize all error as being one and the same lie, though seemingly manifested in a bewildering number of forms, I sought for an allegory or analogy which should illustrate the point more clearly.

It then came to me that all mythology and folklore furnishes again and again the very illustration I was seeking. How many stories center upon some huge dragon or giant which holds a community or perhaps a whole nation in a thraldom of fear. Through the mandates of this monster the people are forced to perform cruel tasks, and his insatiable greed drives them to greater and greater endeavors to please and propitiate him. With all their efforts they never win his commendation, but are frequently forced to the extremity of sacrificing in vain their dearest and best loved. Then there comes one without fear, a brave spirit under the protection of good in some allegorical form, who slays the dragon, and gives to its victims freedom and joy.

Has not this been the half-conscious attempt of the poets and story-writers in all ages to depict the workings of the mortal or carnal mind?—a seeming power which acts through persons, while being in no sense a part of any one's true character; making unreasonable, even atrocious demands upon them, causing them to suffer an anguish of fear, to labor frenziedly in attempting to appease its senseless, ceaseless, exorbitant appetite, to wreak acts of cruelty upon others, all in the vain hope of escaping mortal-mind penalties or winning its lasting praise. But in this age, the deliverer, usually prefigured in these allegories as a knight, has come in the form of a brave, heavenly-visioned woman, who has seen the powerlessness of the monstrous unreality of evil, and struck a fatal blow at its very heart with the two-edged sword of Truth. In its death throes, this carnal mind may still seem to be an enthralling and a destructive force, but we who bear witness to the power of Truth realize that the reign of terror is at an end, and that all must soon awake from their lethargy of fear to know this.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

"THE CARNAL MIND"

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access