Article February 28, 1931 Issue

"In my Father's house"

HELENA STONE TORGERSON

A Blustering wind whipped sleet and rain against the windows of the house. Standing high on a hill, where gusts from all directions could buffet it, the house seemed the center of a whirling violence; yet it stood fast, unshaken by the storm, its foundation deep, its structure firm.

In the highest part of the house, in a warm and comfortable room, one watched through the night, scarcely hearing the storm because of the tumult within her own consciousness. She had journeyed to this home to share in the adjustment of a common problem and to give what comfort she could to the human sense of grief. During the hours of the preceding day each member of the household had brought to her his weight of burden, until her own thought yielded to discouragement and she sought this room as a sanctuary in which to clear her thought.

Almost immediately she became aware of a physical discomfort, then of more severe symptoms of disease, until as the night wore on she seemed in the grip of pain and was tempted dully to accept the condition as a fact. Feeling the chill of the night, she turned on the current in an electric heater and retired, but not to sleep; for every aspect of the inharmony recurred, every word spoken echoed in memory, every act assumed exaggerated importance. As the light from the heater illumined the room, however, the familiar objects which thoughtfulness had placed there for her comfort and pleasure were revealed, bringing a grateful sense of ease and protection. And as the firelight revealed the human comforts, the light and warmth of divine Love directed thought toward Truth, whose searchlight uncovered the cause of the sudden illness and showed it to be the acceptance of discouragement, depression, and grief as real. Then a determined denial of the reality or power of anything unlike the love of God began, and she wrestled, as did Jacob, through the night. What was discouragement but doubt of the power of Love to adjust all human relations? What was depression but an acceptance of discord? What was grief but the fear of loss? Did not God's love enfold His children, and could God know fear or create anything for His reflection, man, to fear? What was aggressive mental suggestion but the false claim of a mortal mind which was illusion, without Principle, reality, or power?

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