Article November 4, 1933 Issue

Forbearance

HERBERT L. FRANK

The tendency to believe that evil is real is responsible for needless unhappiness and suffering in the experience of mortals. On the other hand, the truths of Christian Science awaken in us a recognition of the law of God, whereby beliefs of discord and strife are overcome and genuine love and forbearance are demonstrated.

One of the modes of evil is to mislead the victim of injustice into the acceptance of a state of thought which is in itself as erroneous as the offending injustice. This erroneous state definitely interferes, while it lasts, with the individual's perception of the Christ, Truth, which is alone capable of healing, protecting, and saving him. When a wrong is responded to with thoughts of resentment, bitterness, revenge, envy, jealousy, or hatred, the individual entertaining such erroneous thinking is accepting that which, in belief, gives the injustice the only power to harm which it may seem to have.

Hatred in its various phases and ramifications has a similar harmful effect in the realm of thought to that which poison seems to have on the body. Mrs. Eddy says (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 249), "The moral abandon of hating even one's enemies excludes goodness;" and she adds, "Unless withstood, the heat of hate burns the wheat, spares the tares, and sends forth a mental miasma fatal to health, happiness, and the morals of mankind." When the unfavorable results produced by resentment and bitterness are seen, the temptation to think in such terms will be resisted; for who would knowingly entertain that which he sees to be harmful or destructive to his own well-being?

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