Article December 27, 1930 Issue

Javelin or Harp?

Alice Peirce Sylvester

It is recounted in the nineteenth chapter of I Samuel that Saul "sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand." What a picture! The rage-racked king, consumed with jealousy, grasping his javelin, ready to hurl it at the first provocation, and the youthful shepherd playing on his harp and lovingly trusting his God, serene as he had been when threatened by the wild beast or the boastful giant. Here we have an incident symbolic of mortal existence—of the opposite methods of resort to the javelin, the destructive way, and of resort to the harp, the constructive, healing, harmonizing method.

Broadly speaking, this is true of the world to-day. In international affairs there are some who believe in and argue for war as the time-honored method of settling differences. But there are also those who plead for arbitration and a brotherly method of settling disputes. These are gradually assuming ascendancy, and so to-day the javelin is giving way to the harp. Since nations are made up of individuals, we, in our respective fields, are constantly confronted with the necessity of choosing our weapons. In our homes, in our business, in our churches, which do we keep in thought, discord or harmony, and for which do we instinctively reach, the javelin or the harp?

The javelin is the weapon of mortal sense, of anger, resentment, retaliation; and sometimes it is the poisoned dart of slander. It is forged on an age-ole anvil, the belief of a power separate from God—evil. On the other hand, the harp is a gentle instrument speaking of peace and harmony. Artists of an earlier day were wont to put harps in the hands of angels, evidently associating the thrilling tones of the harp with their dreams of celestial music. On page 213 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursing either discord or harmony according as the hand, which sweeps over it, is human or divine." For the purposes of this article we shall consider only the harp which discourses harmony.

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