Article September 4, 1915 Issue

Opening the Way

F. MAUD TURNER

The well-known saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," was aptly illustrated for the writer by some moving pictures which showed how ice-trawlers make their way through the ice-floes. The trawler approaches the ice-floe through which a passage is to be cut, and sometimes only after several attacks does the ice-floe split apart. Through the passage thus made the ship sails until another ice-floe is met, and this has to be attacked in the same manner.

In our passage from sense to Soul the ice-floes that confront us may be physical or temperamental difficulties, business, family, or household worries, and these obstructions may seem to present a very determined front. If, however, we approach them with the conviction that the spiritual power which is impelling us to face the problems honestly will also sustain and uphold us through them, we shall recognize that to be repulsed does not mean failure or defeat, for the apostle assures us that "in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Just as the trawler plows her way toward the ice-floes, meeting repulses with renewed attacks, so must we meet unflinchingly the various problems which confront us in this human experience; not disheartened by repulses, not weighed down by the seeming magnitude of the difficulty to be compassed, but rather encouraged by the happy refrain found in Mrs. Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 2), "The song of Christian Science is, 'Work—work—work—watch and pray.'" The work of the Christian Scientist is to heal the sick as Christ Jesus commanded, and the result of such work must bring joy and gladness to all whose shackles have been removed.

When Jesus was preparing his disciples for the time which lay before them, when he their Master would be no more with them personally, he told them that "the Spirit of truth" would be their guide and protect them through all dangers. He foretold also that in the world there would be tribulation for them, but he added, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." By this he showed that not only had he himself been the victor, but he implied that all who followed in his footsteps would also be victorious, otherwise the words "Be of good cheer" would have no meaning; rather would the assertion be a mockery, unless the overcoming were possible to all mankind. The Christian's aim is victory, not freedom from attack, and on this point we find help in the following statement from "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 56): "Divine Science demands mighty wrestlings with mortal beliefs, as we sail into the eternal haven over the unfathomable sea of possibilities."

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