Article May 10, 1947 Issue

Light, Not Condemnation

GRACE MC KEE BRIGGS

Almost everyone has at some time had the experience of making an unguarded remark or of thoughtlessly giving a wrong impression. And perhaps no human belief of humiliation and self-reproach is more keenly felt than that which not infrequently follows the utterance of such an inappropriate or untrue statement. An almost helpless state of self-consciousness seems to prevail in spite of efforts to rise above it. There is but one way to meet the situation, and that is to spiritualize our thinking.

One who was deeply embarrassed by an unhappy experience found comfort and healing in the first chapter of Genesis. Although this individual had for a number of years been a student of Christian Science, and had often demonstrated the healing power of Truth in overcoming various types of mental and physical discord, this experience left her in such a perturbed state of self-condemnation that she seemed incapable of answering error's argument: "Well, you made the remark, and your friends heard it. What are you going to do about it?" A spirit of willingness to prove the healing power of Truth over error of every form sent this student to her textbooks, the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. She was impelled to open the Bible to the first chapter of Genesis, although she was tempted to believe there was nothing there that would help her.

As she read the lines, "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep," she was still of the opinion that the words were not applicable to her problem. Suddenly, however, she saw the appropriateness of the passage, for it certainly described her state of thought at that moment. Reading further, she saw that after the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God commanded that there be light, there was light. She saw this light as "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9), and she instantly recognized that this same glorious spiritual light could so fill her consciousness that the thought of self-condemnation could have no place. In the brief time required to read and accept the divine facts contained in these verses, her thought was changed from one of depression and heaviness to one of spiritual joy and light.

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