Article September 5, 1925 Issue

"See that ye be not troubled"

DAISY BEDFORD

How often have the Master's tender words, "See that ye be not troubled," lifted the seeming burden and set free the thought of the wanderer in the wilderness of material sense! How inspiring when hard pressed in the turmoil of earthly hopes and longings to listen to this loving exhortation and be comforted; and if we are not comforted we may well ask ourselves what prevents us from realizing the "Peace, be still." May it not be that oftentimes it is necessary for each individual to search his thinking for what would appear to constitute his lack of harmony? Does God, infinite good, ever send to His children less than all good? Does He who heeds the sparrow's fall know aught of sorrow, distress, despair, or whatever would appear to be causing the mental upheaval?

Jesus spoke the above words when warning his disciples of wars and rumors of wars, of tribulation such as had not been since the beginning of the world, and bade them not to be disturbed thereby because, as we find it in one translation, "these are the beginning of birth pangs." Who has not experienced mentally just such pangs? But need we be troubled? Should we not rather rejoice because, as our Leader so beautifully points out in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 562), "The spiritual idea is typified by a woman in travail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but remembering no more her sorrow for joy that the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the travail portentous."

Yes, some one may say, it is easy to see that the resistance to good in human consciousness may cause travail and sorrow when that which we may have believed to be good and true is proved to be lacking in the fundamentals of Christianity. There are times, however, when we are seemingly overtaken by suggestions of fear, worry, doubt, and sickness. Can we claim, then, that we need not be troubled? Is there still "balm in Gilead" for the one apparently lost in the morass of these false beliefs? Indeed there is! Lovingly in our Church Manual (p. 42) our Leader tells us of the duty of every church member daily to defend himself against aggressive mental suggestion. So we need not condemn ourselves nor need we despair of comfort. The word "suggest" means, "To draw to ill by insinuation, to tempt." And when we remember that "aggressive" means "tending to aggress," or "to invade in a hostile manner for the purpose of injuring," we can see how necessary it is to protect the citadel of thought daily, yes, moment by moment.

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