REFORMERS of various schools, in their endeavor to help the victims of sin and sickness, have become aware that optimism is highly desirable. Never before have physicians and theologians, for example, insisted as strongly as they are doing today upon the value of optimism as an ally in the cure of the sick and sinning. And yet these reformers need to be reminded that optimism cannot be founded upon the evidence of the physical senses, but is mental and spiritual in its nature, and must be derived from a correct concept of God and man, if it is to be available in the work of healing and reforming humanity.
No amount of prying and prodding into matter can lay bare optimism. It does not lie latent in any drug, nor act through any chemical reaction. It is not to be found in the countless experiments conducted by the medical profession, in the multitude of books published on the subject of materia medica, nor in the bottles reposing on the shelves of the thousands of pharmacies found all over the world. Moreover, it is too often excluded from the doctrines taught by scholastic theology. Optimism may operate in the mind and heart of the physician or patient and so prove beneficial, but if unsupported by spiritual understanding it is indeed a slender reed to lean upon in the presence of sickness and death. Optimism may be excited temporarily by the expectation of relief and cure; it may even be artificially induced by false hopes; or it may be so deeply imbedded in what is known as the temperament of the sick person as to defy for a long time the evidence of physical deterioration. But if optimism is to endure, it must be based upon conviction, and sound conviction can only follow upon scientific understanding and reasonable proof. Optimism which is not founded upon fact cannot last, and the reaction which comes from disappointment is often a dangerous experience for the sick and sinning. It does not suffice to be buoyed up by hope and good wishes, or to expect health, happiness, and holiness simply because these qualities are held to be desirable.
Optimism must rest upon a substructure of science which will satisfy reason, bring conviction, and establish the proof of its own correctness. This Science, of which Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer, is Christian; it has come by revelation, and it is founded upon the Bible. Systems which try to induce optimism by the promise of relief from disease through material remedies, or by holding out a prospect of spiritualization after death, have not justified their existence. It has been found that material remedies run their course. At first they may seem efficacious in many instances, but as the mortal consciousness passes from theory to theory, certain remedies lose even their supposed effect, are displaced by others, and end by disappointing those who trust in them. So also the promises of good things to come in the hereafter do not satisfy the human craving for happiness and holiness now. Moreover, these promises have never been highly valued by mankind, for their fulfilment has been made conditional upon death, and mankind has always taken every possible precaution to escape death.
