Editorial August 2, 1913 Issue

SCIENTIFIC FORGETTING

Annie M. Knott

To the student of Christian Science the Scriptures take on a new meaning and make strong demands for unhesitating obedience to statements of truth which were formerly passed over as having no vital relation to the working out of our present-day problems. One such statement is that found in Paul's epistle to the Philippians, where he tells of his effort to follow Christ Jesus up to the victory over death. He reminds his readers that he does not claim to have reached this high attainment, but that he is pressing on toward the goal, and he does not fail to make clear the "one thing" which he evidently considered of supreme importance in his brave effort to realize the meaning and grandeur of life as revealed by the Master. He says, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus;" and he counsels all who are striving after perfection to adopt this rule.

It is surely worth while to inquire diligently of ourselves to what extent we are doing this, and so helping others as well as ourselves. There are few who pause to think that disobedience to this rule entails needless suffering, hinders our growth out of the mortal sense of things and darkens the outlook. Our revered Leader says, "To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian Science seem peremptory; but mortals are hastening to learn that Life is God, good, and that evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or the divine economy" (Science and Health, p. 327). We ought to see, and see clearly, that this rule, stated by St. Paul, is one of the strict demands of Science, and a most important one. Christ Jesus said, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," and we are told that we should not let the sun go down upon our wrath. In other words, we should wrestle bravely and scientifically with every phase of evil which assails us, but never carry a belief of its reality into another day, much less carry this burden into another year.

The belief that evil has power to harm us, or that it ever had such power, is a disturbing element in human consciousness, and in its worst form may even lead to disease of mind and body, until obedience to Truth's demand brings deliverance, as it surely will. In Longfellow's beautiful "Psalm of Life" we are bidden to "let the dead past bury its dead;" and this is surely sage counsel, for the experiences of each day should leave only the memory of brave encounter with the assaults of evil, and that greatest of all victories, the consciousness that our armor is unpierced because we have never let go of the great truth that God is supreme. Jesus won the victory over death by proving the powerlessness of hate to dim his sense of Love's ever-presence, and that is why we can say with boundless gratitude that we love him; but our words would be a mere mockery if we failed to forgive and to love those about us in the full measure of our present understanding.

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