Thought Censorship

LILLIAN BARKER BEEDE

There is a significant object lesson to be gained from the action taken by the United States Government in the establishment of mail censorship. This wise precaution, prohibiting the sending of any information, however free from intentional harm on the part of the thoughtless writer, that can possibly lend assistance to the enemy which is attempting to defeat the great army mobilized for the purpose of establishing and maintaining democratic liberty for the world, reminds us of a note of warning which went forth overy forty years ago to awaken the thoughtful to the wisdom of watchfulness.

When our beloved Leader rediscovered for us the way of salvation and freedom, and announced the essence of her discovery in the significant seven word sentence, "Stand porter at the door of thought" (Science and Health, p. 392), few people comprehended that the metaphysical emancipation proclamation for all mankind was being translated from the Scriptures into twentieth century language. Not many were aware that strict obedience to this admonition and the understanding of the explanatory teachings accompanying it, would be rewarded by as effective demonstrations of the power of the Christ-mind over evil manifested as sin and disease to-day, as was the devotion of Jesus to his divine mission when the external evidences of wrong thinking, known as blindness, paralysis, sin, and death, were destroyed by righteous thinking.

Our Government appeals to the spirit of patriotism when it calls upon its soldiers and citizens to guard well their written words lest they unwittingly give the adversary assistance and advantage. Christian Science, in the ringing words of its Discoverer, appeals to the world to put a censorship on thought. It is a command of equal importance to soldier and citizen, to the man in the trenches and the mother at home. To the one it suggests a sentry challenge to every thought of discouragement, of hatred, of revenge, of fear; to the other it means the most alert censorship of all anxiety, worry, sorrow, for the heroic dear ones at the front.

The great home army behind the men in the trenches can give no more effective aid to those on the fighting line than by a rigid observance of this thought censorship. Let us search our consciences daily, and if we find lurking therein fear for the safety of a loved one, let us instantly blot out the dangerous communication with the enemy by remembering the discernment of Job when he said, "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me," and let us steady our thought by the words of the psalmist: "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." Do we find ourselves in an attitude of anxious waiting for a message of assurance from the front that "all is well"? Why depend upon the uncertainty and unsubstantiality of mortal mind's communications, when without delay we can turn to divine Mind and know that God's idea,—the spiritual man, the only man that in reality exists,—is not and never can be in danger. Poisonous gases, bursting shells, bullets, disease, or any material weapon of destruction invented, can never touch the real man, or for one instant separate him from Life, since God is his life and is ever present. World wars in reality destroy naught but the false beliefs of mortal mind.

Let thought's wireless messages that are continuously flashing to the front from every part of the world be protective, assuring ones, bearing only such statements as have passed through the rigid censorship of absolute Truth. It is thought force, not physical force, that is to win in the war; thought that is wholly spiritualized, censored of all error's mesmeric suggestions, thought emanating from the omnipotent Mind.

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