Article October 30, 1920 Issue

The Experience of Balaam

HANNAH WEBSTER WELCH

In the Bible there is much about a condition of thought called rebelliousness, stiff-neckedness, or as we to-day think of it, willfulness. It is interesting to study this quality of the human mind through the dictionary, where it is allied to witchcraft, to hypnotism, to sedition, and organized lawlessness, also to lust. Mary Baker Eddy, in her writings, has many times pointed out the subtle nature of it, the danger of yielding to its influence, and has warned her students to be ever on guard against this stumblingblock. On page 446 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" we read: "The exercise of will brings on a hypnotic state, detrimental to health and integrity of thought. This must therefore be watched and guarded against." On page 206 of the same book she says, "The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities."

Numerous unhappy experiences of the children of Israel in their journey from the bondage in Egypt to the promised land resulted from this quality of thinking; and those who were victims of it were inevitably led into fearful conditions and often to destruction. It is directly opposed to that meekness, or receptivity to Truth, which is willingness to learn of God and to be obedient to divine Principle, to the possessors of which quality Jesus referred when he said, "They shall inherit the earth."

Among the many Bible narratives illustrating the operation of the human will is that of Balak and Balaam, a wonderful lesson to every student of Christian Science. When we are introduced to Balak, King of Moab, in the twenty-second chapter of Numbers, he is in a state of great fear concerning the appearance and evident purpose of the children of Israel to overrun and conquer his kingdom. In order that he may be sure of destroying them he has determined that they must be cursed—which is the first impulse of fear, superstition, and human will. He therefore sent messengers to Balaam, who was reputed to be a diviner. Balaam is pictured as having an earnest desire to do what God wanted him to do. The first messengers from King Balak found Balaam undisturbed and he was able to hear clearly, through his highest sense of good, what God said to him: "Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed." Balaam, obedient, refused to go.

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