Article July 29, 1916 Issue

The Practical and the Ideal

SADIE KIEKINTVELD

Practical views of life and the ideal have long been considered irreconcilable, and the dreamer and idealist often has faith in humanity sadly shaken; but to spend time bemoaning one's disappointments is a narrow and selfish course of action. Often the cause of the disappointment lies in one's own consciousness, and a truly noble nature will refuse to condemn others, but rather seek to find wherein it has failed. When we are ourselves so often in need of forgiveness, we should treat others with the same generosity.

A great deal is said about the disillusions experienced in advancing years, but the truth of the matter is that the first fair vision of a world of good is the real, and all that evil would bring up to contradict this eternal fact is the illusion. "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," is the simple and sublime statement of the inspired writer. All that appeared afterward was mist and an illusion. This philosophy of living, emphasized in Christian Science, enables one to hold thought fast to the good, and at the same time deal in a common sense, kindly way with things as they seem. This ideal is no misty abstraction, but an inspiration to practical goodness. It transforms the every-day world, and gives to its loyal adherents here and now as much of heaven as they earn.

Among the most common causes for cynicism are the misunderstandings between friends which arise from a lack of perfect honesty. No two people, however well intentioned, have exatly the same way of going about things, and when perfect confidence does not exist between them a small error can magnify itself to such proportions as to hide all that is good and true. The name which Jesus gave to evil was "a liar, and the father of it;" therefore the slightest deviation from the truth is to be avoided. Any course of conduct, however well meant and conventionally excusable, in which words and actions are made to belie thought, it arouses curiosity and often brings down censure where none is due.

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