Editorial August 16, 1924 Issue

Overcoming Fear of Separation

Ella W. Hoag

The belief of human existence is based on the supposition that man is separated from God, good. Out of this belief come the fears of loss and lack which beset mankind. Because of it mortals are always fearing they shall be separated from what they hold as dear—from health, life, plenty, happiness, and especially from each other. With these fears lurking in the background of their consciousness, it is not strange that Job's experience becomes theirs, and they find themselves almost constantly crying out, "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me."

All men have been seeking and laboring to obtain or retain some sense of good. One great difficulty has been that because they have entertained the concept of a selfhood apart from God they have generally been looking for good in a wrong way. They have been asking for that which they deemed would be agreeable to and beneficial for this false self; they have also felt it necessary for them to protect and care for it. Since they have believed this selfhood was theirs apart from and independent of every one, even God Himself, they have quite naturally asked, If we do not look out for ourselves, who will look out for us? Indeed, human belief has encouraged men to think that God had made them responsible for such care and that, did they fail in giving it, they would be shirking a duty. Is it strange that such education as this had resulted in a world apparently filled with every conceivable form of selfishness?

This belief in a selfhood apart from God, good, will therefore always be accompanied not only with fear of separation but with selfishness; and to such a consciousness real good seems absent. Mrs. Eddy writes in "No and Yes" (p. 20): "Ever-present Love must seem absent to ever-present selfishness or material sense. Hence this asking amiss and receiving not, and the common idolatry of man-worship." It is very apparent, then, that if one is to lose his fear of separation from good, he must learn to let go of the belief that he ever has had, has now, or ever can have an existence apart from God. Only as he does this can he lay hold of the ever present Love which knows neither fear nor selfishness; which knows only divine unity—that unity which forever maintains all in the inseparability of infinite good.

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