Article January 1, 1938 ISSUE

Disposing of the Evils of Yesterday

MYRON FABRICANT

Happy is the individual who through the teachings of Christian Science has learned to dispose of the evils of yesterday. To the one still brooding over them, the Christ, Truth, reveals the way out of the mesmeric belief in the carried-over evil. Christian Science teaches that the effect of wrong beliefs is not indelible any more than are diseases incurable. It destroys the false belief in an irrevocable past through the realization of omnipresent Love, which erases the sense of evil and leaves nothing but what Mind, the creator, knows about its own ideas. In this spiritualized consciousness there is no condemnation of oneself or another, but a joyful acceptance of the redeeming declaration that "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

Sometimes the suffering one is so disturbed by the remembrance of his past ignorance or disobedience to God's law that he dare not take anyone into his confidence, even when most in need of help. To such a one, the certainty is held out that he can gain his own pardon by turning directly to God. On this point of obtaining surcease from self-condemnation effectively, Mrs. Eddy writes in "No and Yes" (p. 31 ), "To me divine pardon is that divine presence which is the sure destruction of sin; and I insist on the destruction of sin as the only full proof of its pardon."

But perhaps the problem of disposing of past evil seems more difficult when someone has hurt us. The continual sense of irritation interferes with our daily work, and we are not at peace with ourselves because of the mental harboring of belief in evil. Under such circumstances one may ask, Is not this seeming suffering purely a condition of thought? Cannot the wrong picture of the individual and the unpleasantness connected with him be disposed of mentally as if it had never taken place? To these questions Christian Science replies in the affirmative. In the Message to The Mother Church for 1901 our Leader points out (pp. 12, 13 ), "Evil is neither quality nor quantity: it is not intelligence, a person or a principle, a man or a woman, a place or a thing, and God never made it." This authoritative statement of a spiritual fact can and does heal by eradicating all beliefs of resentment and sensitiveness.

But how can help be given to the burdened one who has in the past injured another? Justice demands that where it is possible to undo the effects of the evil and make necessary restitution, this should be done. But what if the injured one cannot be located or has passed from sight? To dispose of this pressure, there must be a mental severance from the whole occurrence. Merely turning away from it, however, is not enough. One must rise to the consciousness of the real man's infallibility, and know that he could not injure anything. God's idea has never been either an agent or a victim of evil.

Whether one is dejected by a sense of separation from loved ones, by the vanishing of material possessions, by a poignant regret over serious mistakes, lost opportunities, or some "might have been," the understanding obtained through Christian Science that these are but dream-shadows, never realities, disposes of them even when they have been long held in thought; and it often heals the condition resulting from them. No false claim of evil can rise up aggressively from the past to threaten the joy and peace of the present. Mrs. Eddy writes (Unity of Good, p. 57 ), "Man's refuge is in spirituality."

The higher one rises spiritually, the better is he equipped to dispose of the evil of today and yesterday, and to live righteously in the present. What joy, peace, and gratitude are experienced when one is thus liberated from the torment of dwelling on the unhappy past! He can now face the future in calm trust, saying confidently with the apostle, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

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