The great evil which besets human existence is fear, and too often is mortal man heard to say, in the language of Job "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me" The child of earth is bound by his fears and knows no way of escape. He never loses sight of the one great fear—the fear of death—which casts a shadow over his whole mortal existence, and, consciously or unconsciously, he is influenced thereby in all that he does. He is afraid of sickness and suffering; afraid of sin and temptation; afraid of failure and disaster and calamity; afraid of poverty and its attendant discomforts; afraid of the loss of social standing and the stigma attached thereto; afraid of the countless lesser evils which hasten the coming of the one great evil; in a word, afraid of fear.
Even human wisdom lifts up its voice and says, "Be not afraid," but at the same time it contends for the reality of the things that are feared. While seeking to extinguish the fire it adds fuel to the flame. Thus mortal man finds himself in a peculiar and incomprehensible condition. He is made to see that he is incapacitated by fear, that he is less able to grapple with the things which need to be overcome, and that he is making it possible for himself to suffer the thing he so much dreads. On the one hand he is told not to be afraid, while on the other there seems to be great reason why he should fear. So far as human knowledge and experience is concerned there is no way of escape, and he is left to drift whithersoever his fears would carry him. The world is greatly in need of something to save it from its fears. Almost daily new sources of danger are announced and additional reasons are given for being afraid of the things that have been feared in the past.
Through the teaching of our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, one learns that fear is a mental condition, a negative state of thought, not a material thing. It does not originate in matter, is not supported by matter, and it cannot be removed or lessened by the application of anything material. Its immediate cause is a belief in the reality of the thing that is feared. One does not fear that which he knows does not or cannot exist. That which he fears either exists in fact and has power to harm him, or else he believes that it does. If the former is the case, he cannot be saved from fear unless the thing feared is deprived of its existence or power; but if it be that his fear is occasioned by his belief in the reality and power of that which he fears, he needs only to be saved from his belief. Understanding alone can remove the effect produced by ignorance. All the learning of the ages, based upon a belief in the reality and power of evil in its various forms, and the practice resulting therefrom, has failed to lessen human fear. Would it not, then, be a wise thing to work from the opposite standpoint, even though it seem to be nothing more than an experiment?
