Article June 26, 1948 Issue

LOOK UP!

STANLEY T. VAILL

A Christian Scientist frequently made overnight business trips to a large city, arriving very early in the morning. He was accustomed to walk the short distance from the railway station to his hotel, although with considerable distaste, since his route took him through a slum area which at that hour was littered with the accumulated refuse of the preceding day and night.

On one occasion as he was walking along the street, feeling quite depressed because of its ugly appearance, he suddenly thought: "All this dirt can't touch me. It is burdening me only because I am looking at it, taking it into my consciousness, accepting it into my day. Look up! The sky is clear and bright with sunrise. The air is fresh and invigorating. It's going to be a lovely day. Rejoice and be glad!" Then there flashed into his thought Mary Baker Eddy's admonition in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 264): "Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind?" Instantly he realized that the seeming ugliness was no part of man's real existence and could be excluded from his experience by resting his gaze in "the unsearchable realm of Mind."

This does not mean that the Christian Scientist ignores unpleasant conditions or surroundings. Rather does he refuse to admit the evidence of evil and discord as real, because he knows that the allness of Truth is expressed in harmony and virtue. He understands that because of God's impeccable perfection opposite evidences are unreal; and he specifically affirms their nothingness. He declines to weigh down his consciousness with mortal mind's fraudulence, which deserves no consideration.

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