Article September 26, 1942 Issue

Some Thoughts on Buoyancy

John M. Tutt

Akin to the priceless sense of humor is the Christly quality of buoyancy; akin, for both are a spontaneous outburst against the absurdly false claims of evil to existence, presence, and power. Buoyancy may be viewed as that "garment of praise" which Isaiah declared should replace "the spirit of heaviness." This "spirit of heaviness" is a descriptive term for the effects of depression and the aftermath of all phases of animal magnetism. What time error is stimulating, that exhilaration is but depression in the making. Evil is never satisfying when played out. The stimulus of materiality has its sequel in reaction. Followed through, animal magnetism is always "the spirit of heaviness."

It is natural for children to be buoyant. And if adults were as uninstructed in error, as unmarred by sinful experiences, as uncalloused by familiarity with evil, they too would be spontaneously buoyant. Indeed, the need to cultivate buoyancy is thus all the greater with adults.

Let us bear in mind that this "garment of praise" really belongs to man; and we can always find it, and find that it fits. It is a garment bespoke for man. It was made also for the lesser ideas, for buoyancy is natural for man in all respects. Once a Christian Scientist serving as a nurse became so tired, worn, and disheartened by the tenacity of the error in the case that "the spirit of heaviness" descended upon her, and so engulfed her that she fled the bedside and the house of gloom to the garden, where she slumped dejectedly upon a bench under a great tree. The burden of the weight of forebodings and depression was so heavy upon her that her downcast eyes saw only the darkness and the dankness of the soil beneath her feet. Then suddenly her ears caught the indescribably cheerful sound of a song, so clear and clean and good as to lift her eyes to the branches of the tree.

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