Article June 1, 1918 Issue

Making Our Burden Light

LAURENE HOOK

"Every man's word shall be his burden," was the edict of the prophet Jeremiah. How little this great fact is understood may be learned by thoughtfully considering for one day, or even hour, the words that we, as a people, speak to each other. Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life," and when we come to have that same mind in us "which was also in Christ Jesus," for which we daily pray, we too shall breathe forth only words that bless and comfort and heal, instead of clouding the atmosphere of thought with words which may burden the world with their ponderous weight of materiality. If we follow closely the words of our Master, we shall find that their whole tendency was to uplift thought and inspire his hearers to higher and loftier aims and ambitions. His admonition, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light," shows clearly that his mission included the lifting of burdens from weary mortals oppressed by their own ignorance and unbelief. This he could never have done had he gone about talking of disease, death, woe, disaster, poverty, loss, and failure.

We do not, if we are wise, keep in our closets with our good apparel a lot of old, worn, faded, moth-eaten garments; yet we sometimes keep in our mental storehouse, side by side with our new understanding of God and His perfect, harmonious creation, old beliefs and superstitions which have come down from generation to generation, and which are so musty and timeworn that they fall into dust, disintegrate, the moment the searchlight of Truth is thrown upon them. Let us, then, frequently renovate our mental abode even as we do the clothes closets in our homes, cherishing all that is good and beautiful and useful—whatever we would not be ashamed to have brought out into the light of day—and discarding all that is useless, unwholesome, or burdensome—every thought, in fact, which does not measure up to the Christ standard.

We, as Christian Scientists, have a high standard to maintain in this regard, and can do no better than follow, so far as possible, the beautiful example of our revered Leader, Mrs. Eddy, whose words are fraught with such deep meaning. Her writings may be studied with great and still greater profit from day to day; for no idle word can be found anywhere in their pages, nor any words which could possibly become a burden to humanity. These words of hers, on page 324 of Science and Health, "The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress," show us clearly the need for a daily, prayerful elimination of every thought which is unproductive of good. It is our privilege to see to it that our thoughts, translated into speech, measure up to the "stature of the fulness of Christ"—of divine Truth. Thus may we come to realize the truth of our Leader's words (Poems, p. 12):—

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