Editorial February 1, 1930 Issue

Opportunities of Good

Duncan Sinclair

Everyone with the well-being of his fellow-men at heart has experienced disappointment when his efforts, or the fruits of his efforts, on their behalf have appeared to be delayed or thwarted. Not one of the Hebrew prophets escaped this ordeal. Read their utterances in the Old Testament, and time and again there will be detected the note of sadness, even the wail of sorrow, over the sins of an unrepentant people. But continue to read, and despondency will be found giving place to hope, for the idealist ever remembers that the ideal must sooner or later accomplish the discomfiture of evil.

Christ Jesus had his moments of gloom. This is not to be wondered at when one considers the battle he waged with the forces of darkness—the superstitions of men, their materiality, their sinfulness, their blindness to spiritual Truth. But the Master never allowed himself to be overwhelmed by the mesmerism of evil. When the falsities of the world pressed heavily upon him, he humbly withdrew himself from the ken of mortals to commune with his heavenly Father, and after realizing again the truth about God's love for His children and that the understanding of good must ultimately overcome all belief in evil, he could return to his disciples and to his healing work among the multitudes, refreshed and invigorated. And these times of holy communion with Truth, while proving to Jesus the powerlessness of evil, must also have strengthened his conviction that life presented to him never failing opportunities of good.

Mrs. Eddy, who so consecratedly followed the Master, had many experiences similar to his, for the world opposed the truth of Christian Science she discovered as bitterly as it opposed the truth which Jesus revealed. Our Leader's mission was to state the truth in scientific terms, even the truth about God and His creation, and to expose the errors of material sense, including the lie that evil is real; and in doing so she encountered the world's hatred. Her journey, therefore, was not an easy one at times; but always she overcame the heartaches and the disappointments through keeping the ideal Truth before her, remembering its power to vanquish every belief in the presence and reality of evil. On page 426 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" we find these helpful words of hers: "The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it. When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress."

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