Article April 28, 1917 Issue

"Let the dead bury their dead"

J. ALLEN BARRIS

Slowly the train was moving out of the station. From their seats in the car some observers could see the party of friends standing on the platform, apparently reluctant to go until the last moment. Good-bys had been said, but it seemed as though the loving friendships which had been established through long association in the work of a common cause were about to be broken, and the woman looking back at the waving hands could no longer restrain the tears which welled up at the thought of parting. The small boy at her side looked at her for a few moments with much concern, and then said earnestly, his thought filled no doubt with the prospects of the future, "Don't look back, mother; look ahead." In a few moments the mother's tears were dried, and thought turned to the far away city where the new home was to be established.

On page 330 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy tells us that "human hope and faith should join in nature's grand harmony." One of the beauties of youth is that it so quickly forgets the past; that its field of vision lies before it in the future, where hope and aspiration may have unbounded scope without fear of restriction. Fortunate indeed is he who can retain this characteristic of youth as the years go by; who is able to look forward unmindful of the mistakes and failures of the past, which would rise ghostlike to proclaim with so much assurance that they are the inevitable accompaniment of many of the plans and hopes of men. Unhappy, mortal experience would say that with the thought of age this distinguishing trait of youth is largely reversed; that with the belief of advancing years the line of vision begins to run backward. This is because of the belief of an existence having a beginning and an end, toward the latter of which the individual seems to be approaching.

It is one of the peculiarities of mortal thought that when the human mind is stirred to action by the thought of reform, it very often dwells upon those past experiences which would convince it that it is not worthy to share in the blessings of reformation, or that its inability to adjust itself to the new requirements is a punishment for its past transgressions. On page 404 of Science and Health we read that the effects of evil can be removed only "as God's law is fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime." There is no doubt that the time comes to every man when he desires to be better; when he would give up his beliefs in the pains and pleasures of matter. It is at such times that his indulgences of the past persist in occupying thought with all their varied arguments, and with such persistence that any effort to shut them out seems herculean. It is then that memory would whisper, "Be sure your sin will find you out." It is then that self-condemnation and discouragement are found waiting at the door, ready to come in.

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