Giving Up "earth-weights"

ELLEN E. MACKIE

Mary Baker Eddy has written (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 328): "Whatever obstructs the way,—causing to stumble, fall, or faint, those mortals who are striving to enter the path,—divine Love will remove; and uplift the fallen and strengthen the weak. Therefore, give up thy earth-weights."

The beginner in Christian Science, who may have experienced a beautiful healing, is often conscious of great spiritual uplifting. He may, indeed, seem suddenly to have been transported to the very mountain top. The light flooding his consciousness gives him such a sense of joy and gratitude that his one desire is to tell everybody what Christian Science has done for him.

But however pleasant the spot in which we may find ourselves, there can be no standing still in Christian Science. The student soon finds himself called upon to prove the truth for himself, and this may be a testing time. As he presses onward, he may find the path becoming more and more difficult, his steps growing uncertain; and perhaps he becomes conscious of what seems to be a burden.

In the allegory in "Miscellaneous Writings" in which occur the words quoted above, Mrs. Eddy gives an impressive picture of the journey from sense to Soul. "A city set upon a hill," towards which the pilgrim toils, is reached only by a straight and narrow path. "The descent and ascent are beset with peril, privation, temptation, toil, suffering" (p. 323). Some travelers insist upon taking heavy baggage,—burdens of pride, sin, self, and other claims of worldliness,—thus greatly hindering their ascent. Do we not cling often to these "earth-weights"? These material weights to which we hold, what are they but counterfeits of true spiritual qualities?

A student of Christian Science had a beautiful healing of the sense of being burdened when, alone in a large city, she seemed to be weighed down with the belief of lack, unemployment, and loneliness. Having sought what appeared to be a solution, and having found only disappointment, she went to a Christian Science Reading Room, which to her troubled thought was indeed as an oasis in the desert. Comparing her harassed thought with the peaceful atmosphere around her, she asked herself why she should bear such a burden. Instantly "a still small voice" said: "Let us examine it. Suppose you were on a boat which was about to sink from overweight, would you not drop all unnecessary baggage into the sea?"

Obedient to the voice of Truth, the student began to look into her thought. The first and biggest weight she found there was fear. She saw that she could instantly drop this weight, since fear was no part of God, Love, and it could not possibly be reflected by His child. At once this part of the burden fell from her, resulting in a sense of freedom such as might have been felt upon dropping a heavy material weight.

The next weight in her burden was found to be discouragement. It, too, was soon cast from her thought. Disappointment, a false sense of responsibility, self-condemnation, self-pity, ingratitude, were among the other false claims readily relinquished. So thorough was her search into her consciousness that many false claims were uncovered, denied, and dismissed. To her joy, the student soon found that the entire burden had been lifted. With its removal there came a sense of buoyancy and freedom such as had seldom been experienced. Into her consciousness came a childlike trust, a willingness to relinquish all selfish human planning, and let God's law govern her thinking. Naturally, an improved mental state soon manifested itself in her affairs, bringing about better conditions.

In the fortieth chapter of Isaiah we read, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low." What are these mountains and valleys? Are they not states of mortal consciousness? The valleys may be likened to mental depression, discouragement, doubt, fear; the mountains, to selfishness, conceit, pride, ambition.

Our Leader tells us in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 206) that through the study and application of Christian Science there is a transition of thought "from flux to permanence, from foul to pure, from torpid to serene, from extremes to intermediate." The dropping of our "earth-weights" is one of the ways of making continuous progress.

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