In recalling the experiences of some of my earlier efforts to demonstrate the truth as taught in Christian Science, I am reminded of my first attempts to meet the suggestions of animal magnetism. I remember that for a time the very name, animal magnetism, seemed potent to inspire in me such fear that my most earnest effort was often hardly sufficient to re-establish the sense of harmony; and even when the victory had been won, there came no sense of assurance that I should be able to conquer in the next encounter. I could only trust that divine Love would in some way help me through when the need should come. My difficulty was caused solely by the fact that I did not full understand the meaning of the term, and consequently did not know how to do my work aright My conception of animal magnetism was that of some vague, mysterious power, which could be intelligently coped with only by a higher understanding than I then possessed; and only by slow degrees did I come at last to see the falsity of my belief regarding it, and to meet it with the same authority which makes possible the victory over what seem to be more tangible forms of error.
In my association with other students of the "little book," I have discovered that many beginners go through a similar stage of perplexity with regard to this subject, and usually because of the same difficulty,—a false belief in the complexity of the problem,—and it occurs to me that all that is necessary to enable one to meet this phase of error with full assurance is a clear perception of what it claims to be and as clear a realization of what, in reality, it is not.
In the treatment of disease in its various forms, the student has confidence in ultimate victory, not because he believes in a material condition that must be overcome, but because he knows that there is no material condition to be met; and his work is done when he reaches the clear perception of this fact, for before this consciousness the seeming condition melts away. Similarly, in our efforts to meet the claims of animal magnetism, we should be confident of success, not because there is a mysterious power for us to cope with and overcome, but because there is not; and we have only to realize this truth, and the seeming discord no longer exists for us, and we know, with a joyful sense of freedom, that our work has been not against an intangible something, but against the sense (entertained) of this something, which, after all, we have proved to be nothing.
