Although unknown to spiritual consciousness, the word obstruction suggests to the human sense a very palpable hindrance to progress. Because of a long-continued habit of material warfare against obstructive conditions, be they mental or material, we have perhaps acquired an attitude of resistance to such conditions which hinders rather than facilitates their overcoming. Materially, an obstruction is generally conceived of as an obstacle whose substantiality impedes our course or hides from us a coveted view. Mentally, it takes on a myriad of forms, with which we doubtless consider ourselves painfully familiar.
In most cases calamitous wrecks are due to obstructions, some stationary impediment to progress. The very activity of the onrushing train seems to account for the calamitous result of such an obstruction. It becomes destructive as well as obstructive, not through any power of its own, but rather through the very activity of the thing which is obstructed. In Christian Science, where thoughts are things and vice versa, it matters not whether obstructive conditions be termed mental or material. It is enough that we realize the powerlessness of whatever would hinder the pure vision of Spirit.
In Science and Health (p. 338) we read that the name Adam "stands for obstruction, error, even the supposed separation of man from God." Again we read: "Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of material mind" (p. 529). Then the logical deduction would be that all material sense testimony is mental obstruction. In so far as it is active in our consciousness, just so far is it impedimental or destructive in its effect. If sickness be actively in our thought, it becomes an obstruction, hiding from us our true healthhood. If we regard the brother whom we would heal as a sick man, this false view will prove an obstruction to our demonstration. If we hold actively in thought the inharmony of our environment, this outlook will become an obstruction, concealing from us the true harmony of life. If we regard our brother in the light of a personality whose enmity and aggressiveness seem to impede our progress, this false sense becomes an obstruction, robbing us of the unity of good. If we regard ourselves as sinful personalities, this belief becomes obstructive by its denial of Spirit as the only creator; also by its denial of the omnipotence of God, good.
