Article April 1, 1922 Issue

Giants in Thought

HARRIET KATE HELMAN GRAY

Most of us, if asked, "What is a giant?" would answer: "A creature of extraordinary proportions." Perhaps some one might be reminded of Goliath; another, of Bunyan's Giant Despair. However, it is safe to assume that in our day men usually think of a giant as an entertaining fiction of the fairy-story writer; and they might be inclined to doubt, if told that Blunderbore and his brethren are personifications of the distortion of proportion which takes place in human thought when confronted by a difficulty. To the housewife, the pile of unwashed dishes; to the business man, a desk cluttered with correspondence; to the college student, the thesis, research, and required each term,—all may become giants in thought, if "it can't be done" is allowed to come between the doer and the deed. Once undertaken, the task often surprises us by quickly assuming more normal proportions, and soon is mastered. The human thought has to know that "it can be done" So, in the application of the healing truth taught in Christian Science, we must watch that one phase of error does not seem to us to be larger and more difficult to handle than another.

From season to season, and from one generation to the next, the beliefs of disease which frighten mankind change. The specific diseases which claimed to terrify in the Middle Ages are gone. In their place others try to stalk up and down, as did Goliath of old, defying any one to overcome them, and terrifying poor humanity into believing that their height is indeed "six cubits and a span." There are beliefs, such as incurability, deformity, and chronic conditions, which seem to have become fixed giants in human thought. They would appear just as large and unconquerable to Christian Scientists as to their fellow-men, but for the work of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. So one who is trying to put Christian Science into practice must be ever on guard that he be not mesmerized into the "it can't be done" state of thought. He must banish the lie, or the liar that whispers, "Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him."

There are two mental qualities which the Christian Scientist needs if he would slay the giants of erroneous sense. One is confidence; the other, energy. They supplement and complement each other, and commingle in the "it can be done" mental state. Confidence is the consciousness of ability which has its root in the experience of past right activity; energy is the ability for grasping opportunity, or the inherent power to act. It was confidence which enabled David to say, "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." To the mere boy that he was at the time of the episode, those two wild beasts must have looked huge and powerful. Did he run for help? Did he hide himself behind a rock and let them have the lamb? No; he acted. And the fact that he had acted and overpowered two such savage creatures strengthened his confidence so that he could go forth to fight the giant Philistine. Many years later, David and his followers were able to subdue a number of other giants. Perhaps David, with the memory of the fallen Goliath to hearten him, was enabled to speak after this fashion to his servants: Come now, are they not of the house of Goliath, whose staff was a weaver's beam? The Lord who delivered me from the Philistine in Elah will deliver us again to-day.

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