IT is often and most truly remarked that one of the chief characteristics of Christian Science is its gradual unfoldment to human apprehension. When first presented to the earnest seeker after Truth, it appears to him as a newly formed rosebud, which gives only a faint outward promise of its marvelous possibilities. However, as it is earnestly studied day by day, as it is watered by the nourishing stream of fervent desire and kept free from all parasites, the insidious beliefs of materiality, it is seen to swell with each hour, till a rift appears in the bursting calyx, and all its sweet promise is revealed. But the glory is still to come. One by one the sepals of mortal concept fall away, and the full-formed rose of Truth at last appears, in all its perfection of beauty.
Thus in its offering does Christian Science seem first to bud, then to bloom, and then day by day to unfold in the consciousness of the earnest and sincere worker, revealing "a new heaven and a new earth," in which "former things," or modes of thought, have completely passed away, to give place to the spiritual vision which makes "all things new." In nothing is this change of understanding more clearly illustrated than in our altered view and interpretation of the various phases of mortal thought. From mental qualities which we were formerly wont to clothe with garments woven of our best conceptions of love, light, and compassion, we now ruthlessly strip what we see to be a disguise, and find them altogether unideal in their unlovely nakedness.
Let us take, for example, the mental characteristic of so-called sensitiveness. In the old thought, when we looked upon ourselves or others as having sensitive natures, we consciously or unconsciously considered sensitiveness a quality which denoted a more finely organized, more delicate temperament, constituting something apart from the general run of mortals; a quality to be handled with unceasing gentleness and care, a something that called for constant vigilance lest one should say or do that which might hurt the feelings of the sensitive person. Such was the mesmerism that this belief exercised, not only over the victims of the so-called sensitive nature, but over all brought into any close personal contact with them, that the fact was well-nigh lost sight of that these same natures are not only a misery unto themselves, being excluded from all natural enjoyment of the companionship of their fellow men, but a great trial to every one else as well.
