Editorial September 30, 1939 Issue

The Corrective for Fear

Duncan Sinclair

Fear hangs like a dark cloud over the world today. People are in dread of something catastrophic happening, apprehensive that the conflicting political theories of men may involve them in continued conflict, with destruction of life and untold suffering. Fear also seems to dwell persistently in the thought of many because of the possibility of their becoming sick and incapacitated, and it is never absent from those who in belief are sick. In business, too, indeed wherever men labor to obtain what are called the necessities of life, fear is apt to enter in, hindering progress and engendering distrust. As one dwells on these things, one thinks what a happy world this would be were fear eliminated from human experience!

It certainly would be a happier world if fear were overcome in the thoughts of men. It certainly would be a more harmonious world, one where health would be greatly more in evidence than it is at present. The question, then, arises, Is it possible to overcome fear? Is there a means by which it can be overcome scientifically, and mankind be saved from the distress which invariably accompanies it? This has been asked by mortals throughout all the centuries of the past. Sometimes they have glimpsed how the problem can be solved; but not until Christ Jesus ushered in the Christian era was it definitely demonstrated how this enemy of the human race could be overcome, how it could be eliminated from human consciousness.

The Apostle John, he who so clearly apprehended the teaching of the Master, writes in his first epistle (4:18): "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." These brief sentences contain the secret whereby fear can be overcome in human consciousness. John knew that "God is love" (v. 16)—the words are his. And it is this understanding which destroys fear. Allow the thought to dwell for a moment on this great spiritual truth. God is Love, infinite Love. Everywhere, then, Love is present; everywhere Love reigns supreme. It may be difficult for some to concede this, living as they do in a world where evil and fear seem to be so much in evidence; but the fact remains that divine Love alone is real, alone is present, alone has power. Mrs. Eddy writes (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 278): "The government of divine Love is supreme. Love rules the universe, and its edict hath gone forth: 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' and 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.'"

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