Editorial September 11, 1915 Issue

Discord and Harmony

John B. Willis

No human instinct is more universal or more closely related to the welfare of man than that witnessed to in the discomfort of discord. Normal people covet the freedom and safety of peace; hence the significance of the teaching of Christian Science that "Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony" (Science and Health, p. 418). We all perceive this sequence in the realm of mathematics, if not in the realm of human intercourse, and the vast number who have been healed through the ministry of Christian Science have gained a yet deeper apprehension of the verity of this fact.

Every scientific investigator is a seeker for evidence of the reign of law and of the unity of being. In the study of so—called nature, however, he is continually coming upon contradictions, apparent cross—purposes, which are wholly out of keeping with the Scripture teaching that the source of being and governor of the universe is infinitely wise and good; that God is ideal in nature and manifestation, a teaching which logically renders discord both illegitimate and impossible in His kingdom. A perfect cause must produce perfect and harmonious effects, but conformity to the so—called facts of human experience means in large measure enslavement to confusion. Things mundane all seem to move about a common center and to be governed by the same law, and yet they have fatedly interfering orbits.

To illustrate: The farmer plants a seed, and this embryonic seat of what we call life at once relates itself to the chemistry of the earth and air about it and to the rain and light that fall upon it. Thus endowed, it grows to be a tree and gives promise of abundant fruit. No sooner, however, does it put forth its blossoms than a worm appears which, working under the apparent government of law, feeds upon the tender leaves and threatens the destruction of both fruit and tree. For the farmer's relief there are birds which, according to their instinct, feed upon the worms, and they might thus save the situation did not sportsmen ruthlessly kill them for fun or food by means of another marvel of natural law. In his distress the farmer resorts to the use of nature poisons, which finally eliminate the worms and incidentally a neighbor's bees as well!

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