Article September 13, 1969 Issue

What Is Really Going On?

CHARLES HENRY GABRIEL

It has always been helpful to the writer, when confronted with a picture of evil of any kind—whether it was sickness, sin, death, war, or crime, or whenever evil seemed more real than good—to ask himself the question, What is really going on? As elementary as that question may appear to be, it has brought to his thought some profound truths that have clarified and frequently destroyed the illusion of the reality of evil, and has restored his peace. Today's world seems to be full of ugly pictures projected upon the screen of thought, and it would be easy to accept these pictures as true instead of seeing them only as the mortal, or carnal, mind's presentations of itself—utterly apart from divine reality.

When one views a movie, it is not difficult for him to let the picture become so real that he can actually suffer intensely with those on the screen. Tears can pour forth at the predicaments the characters find themselves in; fear can take hold; one can really get carried away with what he sees. Yet the calm, intelligent, objective viewer is not taken in. He constantly reminds himself that what seems so real is only an image on the screen, that soon the lights will go on—and no one will have been hurt. To this watcher, there never has been the least bit of danger regardless of visual evidence to the contrary.

So it is with the alert, intuitive, understanding Christian Scientist. He knows what is really going on. He is not taken in by mortal mind's projections—tricks that would make him believe that something is happening contrary to or apart from God, good. The minute he detects that something is not good, he knows that it is not real; he refuses to become frightened by it; the lights go on and all is well again—the light of Truth destroys the darkness of error.

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