Article September 26, 1942 Issue

"Let not your heart be troubled"

SARAH ELEANOR PAINE

One day the pupils of a class in a Christian Science Sunday School were discussing these words of Jesus, which were in the Lesson-Sermon for that week: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." One of the children remarked, "But Jesus did not give us any commandments; Moses gave us the Commandments." At this, another pupil replied quickly, "Oh, yes, he did; Jesus gave us several commandments. One of them was, 'Let not your heart be troubled.' "

This spontaneous and incisive reply set the teacher to thinking more clearly and alertly about these quoted words. Heretofore she had always regarded them as comforting assurance, not as a command. She had thought of that other saying of Jesus, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." After this discussion in Sunday school, however, she began to realize, as never before, that the Master positively enjoined us to keep thought untroubled, fearless, free from worry, and full of grateful confidence; and in our following of the Way-shower we must endeavor to obey this injunction.

As she thought along this line, many illuminating questions which could be answered in only one way. Why did Jesus command, "Let not your heart be troubled"? Is not the answer in his further words, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me?" Do not fear and worry dishonor God, and deny the everpresence of the Christ, which Jesus revealed and demonstrated? Is not all that can trouble anyone either the suggestion that infinite Love might send evil upon us or the lie that there is another power which is capable of disturbing the harmony which comes from omnipotent good? Is not any form of anxiety a denial of the goodness and power of God?

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