It was Hallowe'en, and a little boy had set up a "ghost" in his playroom. He had placed a grinning pumpkin on the top of a small stepladder, draped the framework of the ladder in a white sheet, and added a pair of gaunt, outstretched arms cut from cardboard. The result was a grotesque figure. During the afternoon and early evening, the child thought it great fun to play about the ghost and pretend he was frightened. But as the shadows lengthened in the playroom, a sense of fear began to cloud the little fellow's face, and his pleasure in the figure abated proportionately. The lights were turned on; and for a few moments the fear was alleviated. At last, however, he slipped to his mother's side and whispered, "Mother, I'm afraid of the ghost." "What?" said the mother, "afraid of the ghost which you yourself have made?" "Yes," replied the child; "he is so ugly, and I am afraid even to touch him."

With that, the mother took the child's hand and, leading him to the figure, said: "Now, son, there is nothing here to be afraid of. Mother will stand by while you take this thing apart, and then you will see that it is just the stepladder and a sheet and a funny old pumpkin." With reluctant fingers the child began to loosen the draperies. They fell away and revealed once again the familiar outlines of the stepladder. Next, the cardboard hands were removed and the light extinguished in the grinning pumpkin. The child then turned to his mother with shining face and drew a deep sigh of relief. "Mother," he said, "I'm not afraid now. I see it was the ghost I made myself."

This simple incident may illustrate a situation by which we older children are frequently confronted. When the light of Christian Science is turned inward, it often discloses in our consciousness a creature of which we are desperately afraid. It is a terrible thing, we think, of definite shape and sinister power. It may call itself "disease" or "disaster" or even "death." That it is only a composite of many false beliefs makes it seem none the less formidable. Beholding it, we may fear even to approach and handle it, in order that it may be taken down from its place of seeming power. Yet, even as Moses was instructed by the Lord to pick up the serpent before which he had fled, so we, if we would banish the thing we fear, must take it up, dissect it, and see it for what it is,—a nameless nothing, a fabulous creature of false concepts, which likewise has no substance or reality. But we shall find also, as did Moses when the serpent he had feared became a rod of helpfulness, that our willingness to challenge the fear has brought to us the strength and courage which attend true victory.

In tearing down these false creations we shall discover that the materials of which our "ghosts" are made are not at all the elements we would desire to retain in our consciousness. We shall find that the annoying thing which we called "disease" may have been only the agglomeration of malice, resentment, anxiety, selfishness, and so on, and that in order to destroy it we must deny the reality of these false claims and set up in their stead love, forgiveness, trust, and a full acknowledgment of God as the only Being.

As the process of razing these false images goes on, or as, in the words of Paul, we "put off the old man" and "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," it is comforting to know that we are not alone in the work. For even as the mother led her little boy gently by the hand and stood by while he went tremblingly about his task, so the tender Father-Mother God is ever near, guiding us and nullifying with His constant love the false claim of fear,—giving us divine qualities with which to replace the false concepts. It is comforting also to remember that we do not work in darkness; that the light of revealed Science is ever shining about us; and that in its illumination we can see clearly just how to dissect and destroy the claims of error.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 353): "The age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly beliefs. It still holds them more or less;" and on page 187 of the same book she says, "Here you may see how so-called material sense creates its own forms of thought, gives them material names, and then worships and fears them." As the belief in ghosts is the result of ignorance, so the false concepts of God and man result from ignorance of the true status of existence. And as the fear of ghosts is destroyed through learning that there are no ghosts in reality, so sin, disease, and death disappear through the understanding that they are not God-created and have therefore no reality. In each case, knowledge has replaced ignorance, understanding has supplanted fear, and thus formed the substance of a new mentality.

We read in Science and Health (p. 248): "We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you reproducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious sculptors and hideous forms;" and in the next paragraph Mrs. Eddy says, "We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives." This passage would indicate that we work with thoughts and that the true man, whom we would know and express, is made up of right ideas. These ideas are God-given; and the supply of them is inexhaustible and always available. The model, too, is ever before us; for is it not the ever present Christ, the perfect idea of God? We have therefore no excuse for retaining in our consciousness any false sense of creation, and no reason to fear it. We have every reason to look to the Christ-model, lay hold upon the divine qualities, and find and express the perfect man.

In Philippians there is an excellent summary of the qualities of the real man which must become our own if we would bring out the image and likeness of the perfect One: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Here we have both the materials and the instruction for perfect building. We are to think right thoughts.

Christian Science teaches us that there is one Mind,—God, good. And from this it follows that the only thoughts which exist are those which proceed from this Mind. How confidently, then, how fearlessly and how joyfully, we may pursue our work! How satisfying to realize that, after all, the work of creation is already perfect and complete, and that our duty lies in the reflecting of that harmonious whole!