Article October 15, 1921 Issue

"The fruit of the Spirit"

HELEN M. DAGGETT

How prone people are to dwell in thought and words on the evils which seem to befall them. Long hours are consumed with the giving of and listening to accounts in great detail of the trials and troubles some one believes it is his misfortune to have. Many times the listener is impelled by the earnestness of the speaker into believing that there is indeed something wrong and that disaster is close, and he too becomes fearful.

Why is it that the topic of disaster of some kind or other seems to have such a grasp on the thinking of the ordinary individual? Perhaps because his fears have been held uppermost for so long that he does not stop to realize how much time and attention he is giving them. Such testimony regarding the state of man is always false, and must be met at once for what it is and refuted. Mrs. Eddy says in the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," page 396: "The refutation of the testimony of material sense is not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this testimony. The refutation becomes arduous, not because the testimony of sin or disease is true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelming weight of opinions on the wrong side,—all teaching that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation."

Let us take, for example, some one who, in working out of some phase of self-will, false pride, or other claim of mortal mind, has seemingly had difficulty in understanding a coworker. With perhaps a little feeling of relief that he has a friend in whom he can confide, he tells this friend of the trouble. He has not the feeling that his coworker is maliciously endeavoring to get the better of him so much as the desire to set himself right in his friend's eyes by self-justification. The friend, unless alert to the truth regarding the whole situation, is very apt to attach too much importance to it all and he too begins to think that the coworker is at fault. This is, of course, all in line with the nature of mortal mind, which is, as Jesus defines it when speaking of Satan, devil, or evil, "a liar, and the father of it." Is the resultant condition of strained friendship, envy, jealousy, and rivalry the truth about man? No, of course not; for through the study of Christian Science we prove that man is the perfect reflection of his creator, the image and likeness of God, and harmony and cooperation is the natural state of his existence.

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