Article July 20, 1912 Issue

ONLY A DREAM

EDITH M. INGPEN.

Sometimes beginners in the study of Christian Science ask, "If evil is not real, then how did the belief in its reality originate?" Although this question is so clearly answered throughout the text-book, Science and Health (especially page 281), many still seem to be seeking an answer through material reasoning, and thereby waste much time and thought.

Mrs. Eddy writes: "The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real" (Science and Health, p. 530). The meaning of this declaration was made very clear to me some time ago, by the following little experience, which may perhaps be of some help to others. One night, while sleeping at a bungalow in the country, I dreamed that I was lying awake, and suddenly seemed to be terrified at hearing heavy footsteps on the garden path outside, passing by the windows. Thinking at once of burglars, in my dream I instantly turned to Christian Science for help and began to declare the truth to overcome the sense of fear. The result was that almost immediately I awoke, and all fear disappeared when I found that it had been only a dream and that nothing had really happened to cause the alarm.

Is not this exactly what mortals appear to be doing? Are they not dreaming that they are awake, listening to the strange, startling sounds of error which seem to hold them down in the stupefying bondage of fear? But sooner or later the "still small voice" of Truth is dimly heard. It rouses the sleepers, and, as our text-book tells us, "what to material sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense-dream vanishes and reality appears" (Science and Health, p. 312). The dreamer may still attempt to look back, may linger to inquire as to the origin of his dream, but only when he turns toward the light of spiritual understanding and awakes "in his likeness," the likeness of divine Mind, will he find his answer, and "be satisfied."

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