Article June 14, 1924 Issue

Freedom from Error

EMMA VIOLA WHEELER

In the last year or so Seattle has built a fresh-water canal where sea-going vessels may enter and rid themselves of barnacles, a crustacean that clings to the bottoms of ships, hampering their speed by the added weight and the increased resistance to water. Heretofore they have been disposed of by an expensive process involving the scraping of the ship's bottom and sides. Now vessels sail quietly into the fresh-water canal and rest there for twenty-four hours; after which they steam out to the open sea, free and unencumbered by the barnacles. Being a sea-water form of life, the barnacles lose their grip and drop off in the fresh water.

Here is a lesson for us. In Exodus we read, "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day." If we could always rest in the sweet assurance of ever present Love, of the presence of the fresh waters of Truth and spiritual understanding, we should be free from all encumbrances that impede our progress over the peaceful sea of harmonious being.

Were we more perfectly imbued with the knowledge that man is spiritual, and, therefore, that evil—Spirit's opposite—has no power to cling to us in any of its myriad mentally-objectified phases, we would then cease fighting these seeming foes, and would be able to stay at work on the affirmative side. Armed with the calm and exalted thought of the superiority of good over evil, we would claim man's rightful heritage, his status of spiritual perfection. Instead, we often make so "much ado about nothing." Arming ourselves with various weapons, we go forth to battle valorously but often somewhat mistakenly with the foe. Zealous for the truth, we are apt to search out each obstacle that seems to be hindering our heavenward passage, and laboriously and painstakingly endeavor to remove it as though it were something substantial and real.

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