Article April 3, 1920 Issue

The Two-Edged Sword

HELEN LOUISE HAAS

"Truth," says Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 538), "is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding." Penetrating the chaos of carnality with accelerated force and revealing its power to bless all who seek it, the two-edged sword of Truth will ever be the emblem of Christ-healing. Piercing pretenses, wounding to heal, probing the very depths of the fleshly mind, it thereby enables the seeker to become "every whit whole."

Each struggle with personal sense, mesmerism, and suggestion affords the student the opportunity of testing his spiritual strength or growth, and will disclose the kind of stronghold his earnest study hours have prepared. It is well to pause in our daily journey and consider how much the master or how much the dupe of mortal mind we really are. Even though personal sense vainly whispers that we read and do our work,—what kind of work are we doing? Are the fruits satisfying? Are our own comforts secondary and our brothers' primary? How many of mortal mind's impositions do we inadvertently tolerate and succumb to, passing them lightly over as little molehills and later standing in incredulous awe before them when they have grown into mountains through our own neglect? Sharp, pointed, much needed rebuke has many times been resisted and considered unjust by the writer, but as she looks back upon these experiences with enlightened perception, great significance is attached thereto. On one occasion she blindly prayed, "Lead thou me on," while within she steadily listened to the persistent suggestion of error, which said, "I am so afraid." Unsolved problems, discord, and discouragement were the fruits of this faltering position. At this point she was confronted with the startling realization that where she had thought she was strong, she was weak. She had then to learn what real mental work is, to begin anew and build from a solid foundation, to realize that fear is doubt, and doubt is a species of atheism. When the work was done aright she became more instant in her affirmations and denials, the parley with error ceased, clarified thought was alert. It was then that the light became so clear that she could easily walk in it, and the fruits of Spirit began to appear.

"All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me," is still being whispered by evil to those who would follow God. If, perchance, our sense be clouded, how can we discern the tempter, and avoid the consequent stumbling and falling, the inevitable struggling back to the Father to regain our health and happiness? Every individual must sometime encounter and defeat the false sense of self, that self of which we may have been very boastful, in which we have placed untold confidence, which we have glorified and coddled, but which will have to be seen for just what it is—the obstruction in the pathway leading to God or Life eternal. On page 233 of Miscellany our revered Leader tells us, "Ignorance of self is the most stubborn belief to overcome, for apathy, dishonesty, sin, follow in its train." The most cherished thought of this so-called self is that it may escape the reaping it has sown. Nevertheless, escape is impossible and any seeming escape is due only to misapprehension or ignorance and is finally seen not to be escape at all. We find ourselves just where our thought has taken us; but when the guarding and guiding of thoughts by divine Mind is manifested, the fears and incertitudes will disappear with the mist which forms them. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

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