Editorial September 23, 1933 Issue

Exalting the Valley

Violet Ker Seymer

Isaiah's prophecy reads, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low." It is well to note both the promise and the rebuke ringing in this prophecy. The metaphor of the mountain evidently refers to a mental obstruction which must be removed in order that one may be lifted out of the valley. When thwarted, self-will is apt to turn to self-pity, but out of this and every other phase of sin, one can be exalted by the power of unselfed love. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 61) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway of our God may be prepared in Science."

We tread this highway through the gain of humility and spiritual understanding. People faced with what appear to be inexplicable calamities are, by turns, discouraged, rebellious, and afraid. In the light of Christian Science, which exposes the dire effects of wrong thinking, the externalized calamities are not inexplicable: they are explicable and avoidable. Every distress endured by mortals is traceable to the general ignorance of God, the true and wholly beneficent cause. In the bewildering rush of external duties and pursuits, it is well, then, to consecrate regular time to the consideration of basic facts regarding causation and creation, and humbly utilize them in all that concerns health, character, serviceability, and success. The Christian Science text-book reveals these facts and the manner of their application. This teaching meets the daily needs of humanity by first and always meeting its deepest need, namely, to understand God and so win the joy and dominion of Godlikeness. The right sense of Deity alone rights human wrongs.

The answer to the Apostle James' question, "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" is obviously in the negative. From God, the creator, cannot emanate both truth and error, love and hate, health and disease, life and death. When a careworn individual hitherto bowed with sinful, sorrowful beliefs, or with disease and suffering, learns that God, divine Love or Principle, is the constant source of man's integrity and well-being, this divine knowledge, if accepted in the innermost heart, purges out the old bitterness and imparts the sweet assurance of God's complete provision for His own likeness. But what of Love's unlikeness—envy, hate, fear, and many other errors? They constitute the mountain of selfishness to be brought low, in order that one may tread the highway.

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