Article September 6, 1952 Issue

IT WAS ONLY A MOTE

WILL B. DAVIS

Human consciousness is awakened or spiritualized through knowing that Spirit, God, is ever present and all-powerful and that the divine Mind, infinite Love, is the only Mind, the only cause and creator. Such a clear acknowledgment of reality corrects our own vision by revealing to us that evil is actually nonexistent. What appears to be inharmony is an erroneous state of mortal thought, no matter how physical it may appear to be. What is called a chronic business discord is only a chronic state of thought externalized. Faultfinding, for example, can become chronic. But we are neglecting something we need to do as Christian Scientists if we continually criticize what others do at home, in business, in church, or in government.

The chronic state of mortal thought which habitually condemns persons or nations instead of condemning only the evil itself and understanding its powerlessness, in fact its nothingness, needs to be jolted out of its illusions. To illustrate, a businessman had been convinced for years that an executive in his firm was unjust, greedy, and inconsiderate. He had allowed himself to become unhappy and resentful over his lack of progress and the lack of harmony in the business. At times he believed it would be best for him to resign his position and seek a more harmonious environment.

Then one week the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly included as part of one of the references from the Bible this admonition of Jesus' (Matt. 7:5):"First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." The businessman was impelled to look up a dictionary definition of the word mote and found it to be "a minute particle; speck." Then he found that for years he had been fretting over his own erroneous concept of man. Yet how foolish it is to resent anything so insignificant as a minute particle or speck. The resentment and unhappiness were immediately dispelled. He realized that discordant beliefs were never real and were never actually attached to anyone. Harmony now reigned in his business and from that day there has been continuous progress and unfoldment of good in his experience.

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IT WAS ONLY A MOTE

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