Article January 26, 1918 Issue

Lessons from an Iceberg

VIOLET KER SEYMER

The temptation to search for the origin of evil is a besetting suggestion of the carnal mind. The statement in Genesis that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," and the further statement by St. John that "without him [God] was not any thing made that was made," reveal beyond question that it is unchristian to seek for any origin apart from God, good. In answer to the inquiry, What is the remedy for evil? it may be said that evil is nothing but a lie, entertained, hence the needful remedy is truth alone. Our Master said, "If ye continue in my word, ... ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The student who allowed his thoughts to be diverted from the study of spiritual causation into a quest after the origin of evil would be plucking the forbidden fruit, rather than seeking the tree of Life.

"Spiritual causation," our Leader tells us (Science and Health, p. 170), "is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress." Through repudiating as unreal that which has no spiritual causation, namely, sin and sickness, the student will soon express better health and a purer consciousness. This improvement will be in proportion as the true seeking after God has replaced the former fruitless search after suppositional evil. Who could profitably make a study of darkness? Night ensues each time this planet turns from the steadfast sun; yet darkness has no starting point. Mortals, likewise, turn toward those densely material studies which only obscure thought by deflecting it from God, the one source of true enlightenment. Only the firm declaration that evil is without causation can rid humanity of evil's seeming effects.

Perhaps we can learn a few simple lessons from an iceberg, and apply these when error chills us into the belief of icebound reserve and suffering. That immense mass, solid though it may seem, is powerless to hinder its own dissolution, when it drifts toward the sun's beneficent rays. Taken as a phenomenon of mortal thought, the iceberg surely has not the same permanence and individuality which we see indicated in birds, trees, flowers. An iceberg as a frozen mass of water resulting from the absence of the warm rays of the sun could not have been formed had those rays been present. With each returning spring the floating monster breaks away from its bleak moorings and is carefully given a wide berth by the watchful mariner, but as it floats into more genial latitudes, can it long resist the melting rays of the sun which each day causes it to steadily disappear?

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Lessons from an Iceberg

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access