Article August 8, 1925 Issue

Improved Belief

HENRY P. CAYLEY

Men in search of peace and happiness are prone to distress and discouragement when the immediate, satisfactory solution of every problem is not seen as soon as the problem arises. They accept discord as fact, and then try to change this fact into another fact which they would call harmony. But if harmony is real, then discord must be unreal, and so their first step should be to change their belief about that so-called claim of discord; that is, they must replace their wrong belief with an improved belief.

The effect of every improved belief must always be apparent. Mrs. Eddy has written in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 296), "An improved belief is one step out of error, and aids in taking the next step and in understanding the situation in Christian Science." This truth was brought home very clearly to one student of Christian Science through what seemed at the time a rather painful experience. He had landed on a small, uninhabited tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, with the intention of climbing about twelve hundred feet up to the highest point. He soon found that the ground, which from a distance had appeared to be a smooth, grassy slope, was in reality covered with loose, jagged rocks, almost concealed in long, dry grass.

On the way up, one of these rocks turned under him, and one of his knees was so badly wrenched that climbing became very difficult and painful. He had sent his boat round to the other side of the island to wait for him; and so he had to go on, eventually reaching the top. After a short rest he started down the other side. The distance was shorter, but the way was even rougher and steeper. After he had gone down perhaps two hundred feet, very painfully and laboriously, he stopped and looked down, and fear came that with his bad knee he could do no more; that soon it would be dark, and then no one would be able to find him or help him. But almost at once came the mental antidote, the "improved belief" that was "one step out of error"—You can take one more step; any one can take one more step. And so he went on, finding, of course, that he could take one more step, and that he could go on taking one more step. Soon he became so interested in each step that he ceased to be conscious of any pain in his knee, and then he found himself at the bottom, on level ground, and realized that what had looked to be the worst part of the climb had actually been proved the easiest.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

On the Value of Thankfulness