Why not Help rather than Hinder?

The genius of mortal mind is wont to express itself unconsciously in self-contradiction and self-defeat, and this is well illustrated in the attitude of the press respecting experiences of persons occupying exalted positions.

All intelligent people know that a state of fear and fore-boding upon the part of patient and surrounding friends is to the distinct disadvantage of a sick person, and most people would readily concede that the focusing of anxious thought upon an invalid could do him no good and would be likely to do harm, since it would certainly favor an increase of his own fear; and yet, despite the probable desire of all to help and not hinder the afflicted, about every possible thing is done in these cases to intensify public solicitude and beget the assurance that the trouble is of a type which is sure, sooner or later, to prove fatal. And this is true not only of the secular, but of the religious press as well.

There lies before us a Christian weekly which in successive issues enlarges upon the likelihood that the trouble in a certain case is malignant, despite the assurances of the operating surgeons to the contrary. The family history of the sufferer is dwelt upon, and the inevitableness of the transmission of the fatal malady is emphasized. Unfavorable tendencies, affiliations, and possibilities are all carefully enumerated and enlarged upon, and having thus done all he could to insure the death of the patient by affirming and supporting the condemnatory mortal law and exciting a morbid mentality in his readers, the editor says that, in spite of advances in medicine and surgery, we are quite as ignorant of abnormal conditions as we were years ago, and adds: "Patient observation for many months will be necessary to decide the momentous question, which we sincerely hope will be eventually favorable."

It is quite inexplicable and wholly inconsistent that those who "sincerely hope" that calamity may be avoided, should knowingly do anything to increase the likelihood of that event, and it is fair to assume that they would not; the above procedure but indicates a subserviency to habit and to current material belief in the supremacy of the powers of evil over good, which seems so pitiful, unfortunate, and out of keeping with worthy Christian thought.

There is an eloquent and well-remembered passage in Paul's letter to the Philippians, in which he says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Macaulay has written a startling paraphrase of this in the following brief description of the character of a certain French Revolutionist, "Whatsoever things are false, whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things are hateful, whatsoever things are of evil report, if there be any vice, and if there be any infamy, all these things ... were blended," he says, in the object of his denunciation.

The thought which mortal sense would have us bestow upon abnormity and the expectation of evil, presents as great a contrast to the true Christian consciousness as does this paraphrase to the Scripture injunction, and yet we all know that the value of the apostle's counsel has in no degree depreciated. How much better to help than to hinder, and how unwise it is persistently to vote for that which we wish had neither place nor power! The needful recognition of a condition of error in no sense authorizes its exploitation, and all sensible physicians would be most glad and thankful if the mouthing of disease and disharmony, as the very titbits of public and private gossip, were to cease.

Christian Science revoices Paul's wholesome appeal, and would give it dominion in every thought and word; and what an unalloyed blessing to all it will be, when its loving rebuke is accepted by those who are now so ready to declare for that which oppresses and offends, so ready to anticipate the undesirable, and to forget the omnipresence of that infinite good in which they would, no doubt, assert that they firmly believe. W.

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A Letter to our Leader

December 12, 1903

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