Article August 3, 1918 Issue

Compassion and Healing

OTTILIE UEBERROTH

When we listen to the promptings of spiritual sense we may learn great lessons from the little things which make up our everyday human life. My twelve-year-old son came in from school one day suffering from an injured ankle, which was badly swollen and very painful. I immediately began to treat him as we are taught to do in Christian Science, realizing the nothingness of this condition. Just then the ringing of the doorbell interrupted me. At the door stood an umbrella mender who asked for work in a very gruff and complaining manner, saying he had tramped all day and had found nothing to do. As I was otherwise engaged I told him there was nothing for him to do, and gently but firmly closed the door. Returning to the room I found my son in a sense of great pain and discomfort.

Taking up my work again, these words by Mrs. Eddy, on page 261 of "Science and Health with Key to theScriptures," came to me: "Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality." I tried persistently to realize this, but the mental picture of the umbrella mender would constantly obstruct my vision of Truth and Love. Mortal mind tried to silence the thought of the brother in need, with the excuse that it must have been his own lack of love which brought him to this condition; but obviously this argument did not clear my spiritual vision. Knowing that there is no obstruction in Truth, I continued my treatment, and these words came: "If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to win his own pardon, ... then he is Christian enough to practise scientifically and deal with his patients compassionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual intent" (Science and Health, p. 365). I then tried to realize what love means, and saw clearly that divine Love is infinite and blesses all mankind, and that we all are the children of the one Father. I immediately felt a love for all mankind, including the umbrella mender, and desired to help him.

When my thought came back to the problem in hand, I could easily "look away from the body into Truth and Love," and on this mountain top I saw the nothingness of this mortal belief. When I glanced up at my son, his face, which had been drawn with pain, was radiant with happiness and love. His need had been almost instantly supplied; the pain was entirely gone, although the swelling did not disappear until the next day. Nor was the umbrella mender left out of this demonstration. On going out to get the letters left in the mail box, I saw the man at work a few doors away. When stepping back into the hall I noticed an umbrella which had been put back into the rack as unfit for use, and it was then taken to the man, who restored it to its former usefulness for a small sum. The clear vision of Truth and Love experienced that day has been helpful many times since.

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