Article September 2, 1916 Issue

A Lesson from a Hammer

AMY C. FARISS

Readers of the Bible the world over must surely marvel at the unresponsiveness of the masses in the face of Jesus' wonderful demonstrations of God's presence with men. Instead of mankind's joyous acceptance of the spiritual inheritance which his teachings brought to light, it would seem as if many of them deliberately brought forth any and every argument to discredit the idea that the works bore any relation to our heavenly Father's power and willingness to bless and save.

Speaking of the same trait in mortal consciousness, as Jesus encountered it nineteen centuries ago, our Leader says (Science and Health, p. 330), "Until the author of this book learned the vastness of Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illusions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with immediate and universal acceptance." In our turn, following the upward path, we too cherish "sanguine hopes" that the works which are so beautifully clear to us as proof of God's presence in our midst, will be seen and gladly acknowledged by those about us. But, as in the Wayshower's time, the most inconsistent arguments are often advanced in an effort to disprove the divine origin of some given blessing or healing, the whole trend of resisting reason apparently being to see that under no circumstance is God to be credited with infinite power and goodness.

This might be most disheartening to earnest toilers, except for the fact that the human mind has always been slow to yield to any idea not familiar to it; also for the further fact that, however it may linger, its grip on the false is loosened and eventually gives way, and in time it seeks a truer basis of thought. Thus each manifestation of healing and regeneration must combine in a degree to impress itself upon the adamant casing of educated and inherited concepts, even if the outward appearance would lead one to believe that the demonstration had been passed unseen and unnoticed, in the way mortal mind has of affecting to ignore what it hesitates frankly to investigate.

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