Article October 18, 1930 Issue

Facing the Future

ANNIE LOUISE ROBERTSON

Christian Science is quietly, but effectually, removing one fear after another from human thought and experience, and for this its adherents are unspeakably grateful. One of these fears relates to a subtle, sometimes undefined, dread of the future. This dread is not entirely with regard to what is known as the hereafter, but often centers on the possibility of unpleasant experiences more immediately ahead of us. Such a fear, so long as it is entertained, makes one forget that God keeps watch over His own throughout eternity.

Most people have some concept of what a dread of the future means, and of the inestimable value it would be to the world if this fear could be lifted from human experience. There are, to be sure, some individuals who for one reason or another seem to have little fear of what the coming years may bring; but unless this apparent fearlessness is founded upon a definite, clear, and true idea of the unbroken continuity of good, it may be shattered by some circumstance or combination of events disturbing to one's trust in the continuance of good.

Is it possible that this fear can be eliminated? Yes, for it is certainly true that a way out of it has been provided, a way so plain and simple that the untutored child, as well as the learned adult, can understand it. Christian Science fully answers the longing of the human heart to find something which will satisfy its greatest needs and still its darkest fears. It has been said that no one ever sank beneath the burden of the day; that it is only when one adds to it the burden of the future that he is crushed by it. And do we not often carry with us the memory of bygone burdens? If a mistake has been made, let it be dismissed from thought as soon as the lesson in correcting it has been learned, and a new joy, the joy of overcoming, be added to our experience. However grievous the mistake, the memory of it should not be allowed to remain a sore spot in one's consciousness, ready to spring up, annoy, or irritate one at any time. The remembrance even of the unjust criticism and ingratitude of mortals should be effaced from one's mentality as soon as possible, lest by remaining it feed the fear of some unpleasant future experience.

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