Problems Big and Little

CAROLINE LAURA HESSE

All too frequently we hear the argument put forward that certain forms of disease are more difficult to overcome, and that it requires a longer period of time and a greater understanding of Principle to overcome them, than those which seem to mortal sense to be minor ailments. Sometimes, at the beginning of the struggle to reach mental and physical freedom through Christian Science, the weary heart loses sight for the time being of the one Principle, and turns from proffered encouragement or the story of some wonderful healing with the impatient cry (in the case of a physical ill). "Yes, but my condition is so much more serious;" or, in the case of mental or moral discord, "Yes, but he did not have so much to meet, so much to contend with, as I have."

What a stride forward would be taken if all who are thus tempted to listen to error's lying testimony would read and follow to its logical conclusion the statement made by Mrs. Eddy on page 97 of Science and Health, where she says: "In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the more impotent error becomes as a belief. . . . The more destructive matter becomes, the more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. . . . The more material the belief, the more obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its domain, dominates all matter, and man is found in the likeness of Spirit, his original being."

What a flood of light is turned upon the darkness of fear and doubt by this illuminating statement. To those of us who have felt the healing touch of divine Truth, and who by following its teachings have been able to overcome even one seemingly small manifestation of discord, it should not be difficult to bring the above statement into practical daily application to all our problems. And then what becomes of that cry of discouragement over the trouble which seemingly is more serious than the one over which our neighbor has successfully demonstrated?

Applying the logic of reason to the belief in a certain process of the progression of physical ills, should not a supposedly malignant growth be easier to handle—if there can be any difference—than the first claim of a bruise, which according to the weight of mortal opinion may have caused the latter growth? And so on through the entire chain of dread beliefs which seem to hold mortal man in bondage, for in the final analysis are not so-called incurable diseases, speaking in the relative sense, nearer destruction and therefore still farther from possessing any reality or power than the early belief in a bruise or a slight cold? To overcome with divine Science any ill whatsoever, one must possess an understanding of Principle, God, an understanding that, as the "scientific statement of being" declares (Science and Health, p. 468), "there is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter." The application of this truth to the first manifestation of error should logically be the only step needed to prevent difficulties. If we can realize, through an understanding of divine Love, that the bruise or any minor ailment is a mortal illusion, that it does not in reality exist, and thus cause it to vanish into the nothingness whence it sprang, should we not also realize that the most dread and terrible belief—give it what name we will—is after all only a multiplication or an addition of many false beliefs, and that it is only more of an illusion than the minor ill? Is it not a false belief come nearer to destruction than in its earlier stages?

Let each one who feels that his ills are of a very serious nature, take a fresh hold on the Science of man's being, and realize that it cannot matter how sense-testimony may classify his ailments, since, as there are no evil realities in the one Mind, there surely can exist no shades of difference between them; and that while the discord may be seemingly slight or seemingly serious, no ill is ever in reality anything less or more than the one false belief, the one lie, that there is a power apart from God, good.

To grasp the fact that God is all-power, ever present, all knowing, is to meet and overcome either the so-called big problem or so-called little problem with equal readiness. Granting the true premise, that a false belief with its outward manifestation possesses no reality, because it is not of God, and that it can not, does not exist in the light of the true understanding of God as All,—this precludes absolutely the possibility of its having dominion over man, who is God's idea.

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