Article January 1, 1966 ISSUE

When May We Look Backward?

ELIZABETH HUDSON SMITH

At times there is a good reason for looking backward, namely to see how far we have come in our journey from sense to Soul. This journey may correctly be judged by the point we started from and the progress we have made so far.

Sometimes we feel that we have made small progress until we look back to the time and place we started on our journey, and then thought is enraptured with the memory of the many times we have known we were standing on holy ground. At these times we recall the inspiration and joy of learning more of our relationship with our Father-Mother God. Our gratitude swells as our blessings march humbly and triumphantly before us, and we realize that we are now standing before an open door leading to infinite spiritual unfoldment.

This kind of backward looking is beneficial because it brings our recognition of and gratitude for good received to date. Looking backward for the purpose of mesmerically staring at error is worse than wasted time. It is never good for us to regard evil as real in the past or in the present. We recall the experience of Lot's wife when she looked back upon the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:26 ), "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."

Our backward looking should be for the purpose of counting our blessings. A demonstration of Christian Science remains in our consciousness longer than the mortal measurement of a certain date. Each demonstration is like an individual stone in a wall and contributes to the beauty, strength, and form of the entire wall. Many have been the times that I have turned in thought to a beautiful healing in the past and gained confidence and strength to finish the job at hand. Hymn No. 238 in the Christian Science Hymnal tells us,

All of good the past hath had
Remains to make our own time glad.

Sometime ago one of our children seemed to be suffering from enlarged adenoids. When this condition was called to my attention with suggestions of medical help, I declined such treatment.

My thought rushed for safety from erroneous suggestions to the beautiful healing of my brother when he was a child. When this same diagnosis of enlarged adenoids came from his school to our parents, they wrote to a Christian Science practitioner many miles away, asking for one treatment for their child. That one treatment was sufficient to heal the difficulty.

My consciousness was filled with what was true of God's child then and always will be, and our child was healed immediately. No mention of this condition was ever made again.

The opening words of the Preface to the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, are these: "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (p vii ). Jesus did not confine healing through Truth to his disciples or to the time of his earthly experience. In Science and Health we read (p. 39 ): "'Now,' cried the apostle, 'is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,'—meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is the time for so-called material pains and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in Science."

The more we learn about the perpetual promise of infinite good, the more we understand the fact of the eternal now. This realization will free us from the regrets, sorrows, and disappointments of the past as well as from the fears and uncertainties of the future. We live in the light of today on our pathway from sense to Soul.

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