Article October 5, 1912 Issue

CASTING OUT FEAR

VERNE E. TAYLOR.

Quite recently, a student of Christian Science, in relating to the writer the story of his healing, said that he had been subject for years to attacks of illness which had occasioned an almost overwhelming sense of fear; that he was healed of these in a few treatments, while the fear was overcome instantaneously. He added that he was freed from the fear with the first treatment, and that it did not return with the recurrence of the physical disorder.

At the time of this recital the writer, then a very young student of Science, had been greatly disturbed for some time by what appeared to be a faulty organic action, the fear occasioned by its frequent recurrence causing, as she was even then aware, far more suffering than the disease itself. In striving to overcome this sense of fear, she had sought to allay it by arguing that it was unreasonably great, that the discordant action was not sufficient to occasion any danger or much suffering, that the attacks thus far had been readily controlled, and other arguments of like nature. Latterly, however, she had had misgivings that this was not a right course to pursue, and that it was not in accord with Christian Science. She had read in Science and Health (p. 380), that by "contending for the evidence or indulging the demands of sin, disease, or death, we virtually contend against the control of Mind over body, and deny the power of Mind to heal;" and she had begun to see that such arguments as she had used were a compromise with error which could never result in its destruction. But how to gain the mastery of a disease while still in bondage to the fear of it, or how to overcome the fear while the evidence of the disease remained—these were the problems which confronted her on either hand, and with her limited understanding of Christian Science they seemed difficult of solution.

It was at this juncture that the conversation already mentioned occurred, and it furnished her with much food for thought. Here was an instance of fear destroyed while its supposed cause remained; and yet we are taught that cause and effect are inseparable! Reflection on this gave rise to the question, Were the attacks of disease, then, the real cause of the fear? Seemingly they were; mortal sense would certainly insist that they were, and for several days this question was earnestly considered, but without much apparent progress toward an answer. But the solution exists for every problem which we encounter in our search for truth, and an earnest study of the Bible and our text-book cannot fail to reveal it. Like a flash of light from eternal Truth itself came these inspired words from our text-book: "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause" (p. 207). Disease, then, is not a cause, and fear is neither cause nor effect! There can be no reality in fear, therefore its origin need not be accounted for; since, according to Christian Science, it has no cause, it is utterly unreal!

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