Article April 8, 1922 Issue

Prevention in Christian Science

BRIGMAN C. ODOM

One great value of Christian Science is that it enables one to handle properly the little things in his own daily experience. If one will do well all the little things leading up to a big thing, he will find he can do the big thing without much effort; or if he will control all the little fears which would seem to go to make a big fear, he will find the big fear will not appear. So, if the little errors or evil suggestions that knock at one's mental door are controlled, the big ones will appear less real. This leads one to see that prevention, in Christian Science, is as important as cure. In order, then, to prevent trouble, to keep evil suggestion out of thought, preparation is necessary. Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are required; and the preparation necessary to gain these qualities,—these right desires and good intentions,—as well as the willingness to help another, are, by the very nature of evil, apparently opposed by evil.

In the book of Job we are told, "There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them." This brings to mind the statement of Paul, "When I would do good, evil is present with me." One finds in his own thought that good and evil talk to one another. Good impressions come to one; these may be followed by evil suggestions. The good refuses the evil and the evil opposes the good. There are times in one's thinking when tragedies seem to be enacted there, and in which error's mental weapons appear to play a part. At this point Christian Science reminds one that good is infinite; and this enables him to make practical in his experience the Biblical statement that God is "a very present help in trouble."

The mental warfare over any problem is a little thing in the beginning. It is a little trouble, a little error; and it can be controlled if one knows and applies the truth to it. Impatience may be small at first; but, if unrestrained, in time it claims to become a big problem, a big evil, and then a great deal of grace and wisdom and patience may be required in order to overcome it. Any wrong suggestion in its initial state can be easily resisted and mastered, if it is put out of one's thought promptly and the door to his thinking is closed against it. In all the little vexing trials incident to daily life, as well as in the big ones, too, the student of Christian Science finds this Science of great value and a great help.

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