EXPLORERS AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS

Annie M. Knott

The recent newspaper notices of Commander Peary's achievements in polar research not only recall the many attempts to reach the North Pole which have been made in the past, but also bring to memory the heroic efforts which led to the discovery of this continent. In both cases the brave navigators had to encounter the distrust and incredulity of the greater number of their fellow-men, and opposition which was based upon the assumption that certain things are impossible and therefore should not be attempted.

In reviewing the history of many who have marked out the way of the world's progress, in any direction, it is easy to see that their greatest hindrances have come from the opposition of those who knew little or nothing of the problems involved, rather than from the inherent difficulties of these problems. The so-called mortal mind tends to go on forever in the narrow orbit of its own limited concept of man's possibilities, and resents the thought that the universe is an open book to him who apprehends God aright. Because the Virgin-mother heard and heeded the angelic assurance, "With God nothing shall be impossible," Christ Jesus came to bless the world not only in his own day, but to time's latest hour, by leading the way to "the new heaven and the new earth" of Spirit's creating.

In scrutinizing the mental conditions of mankind which seem to retard progress, we find indolence and superstition very prominent. It is simply astounding how many there are who seek the easiest way rather than the best way.—the way which is alone worthy of serious consideration,—and yet it becomes more and more apparent that nothing less than constant and strenuous effort in the right direction can perceptibly advance the individual or the race. It should be equally apparent that such efforts develop latent possibilities which are perchance unknown to the one who makes the effort, but which are at length recognized by all as the logical result of intense devotion to a high ideal. Thus is indolence displaced by activity, which in time transforms the individual, until he perceives, that nothing is impossible to him who seeks ever the highest and best.

Referring to another foe to progress, our revered Leader says, "When Columbus gave freer breadth to the globe, ignorance and superstition chained the honest limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and starvation stared him in the face: but sterner still had been his fate, if that discovery had undermined the favorite inclinations of a suous philosophy" (Science and Health, p. 120). In Christian Science we come to see that any false sense of God is superstition, which necessarily includes a false sense of man and the universe. We also see that the true idea of God replaces superstition with Science and makes possible "painless progress, attended by life and peace" (Science and Health, p. 224).

In our own day the discovery by Mrs. Eddy of the Science of being takes first place because of its vital importance to all mankind, in that it reveals the divine Principle of all being and the way to universal harmony. In this instance, also, Mrs. Eddy had to venture into regions unknown to human sense, and on her way had to pass through the frozen tracts of bigotry, ignorance, and prejudice; but she pressed on, opening the way for the countless thousands who would fain follow Christ and find the realm of Spirit—the kingdom of God—but who knew not how to reach it. Through her efforts the way has been made plain to unnumbered wayfarers, who have found that as the obstacles of mortal sense, the beliefs of sin and suffering, are cleared away the goal does not seem distant and it is ever in sight. In the words of Holy Writ, those who "desire a better country, that is, an heavenly," are shown in Science how to find it here and now; "wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."

Annie M. Knott.

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"AS ONE HAVING AUTHORITY"

November 10, 1906

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