Article April 26, 1919 Issue

Recently there appeared some excellent advice denouncing...

Albert W. Le Messurier

The Jersery (Channel Islands) News

Recently there appeared some excellent advice denouncing the recital of woes and recommending cheerfulness as an antidote for prevailing health conditions. All unwittingly the writer falls into error in bracketing Christian Science and human will power in such a manner as to infer that they are identical, whereas they are exact opposites. To advise a man to be cheerful is no doubt helpful, but it is still better to show him the how and why of it; otherwise the poor sufferer looks upon such advice as dangerously near mockery. We shall need to look elsewhere than to human will power for help.

Christian Science in applying Truth's remedy turns thought Godward, first, last, and all the way. Will power, alias mortal mind, alias carnal mind, is recognized as the cause of all the mesmeric trouble, and it cannot therefore be a healer; a house divided against itself cannot stand. The Master of Christianity sufficiently denounced it as a liar to make us chary of consorting with it. If, however, we follow the great Exemplar, thought is turned in the right direction; we begin to understand God, the divine Mind,—that Mind which was in Christ Jesus, that Mind that so filled the Master in the performance of the Father's business that the sick were healed "straightway" and the road was made plain leading to cheerfulness, to rejoicing, and to joyfulness. His followers were taught in the measure of their understanding and of their honest application of the truth to heal themselves and others.

To pray one moment, "Thy will be done," and then to turn from this divine will to a so-called human will power is not consistent Christianity; and we shall do well to return to the primitive Christianity; that so many centuries of dense materiality have been unable to hide or to render ineffective. Christian Science teaches us how to do this.

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