UNTIL thought is leavened by some glimpse of spiritual truth, it is the almost invariable custom of mortals to look upon the problems of life—its illness, sorrows, losses, lack —as hardships to be overcome, if possible; or, as happens all too often, in cases where it is believed there is no remedy, as something to be borne with such fortitude as one can command, even with resignation. There is, it seems, little inclination to look upon such experiences as offering the slightest possibility of blessing the sufferer.
Christian Science is rendering mankind an immeasurable service in making clear that such hardships as befall humanity, rightly utilized, may become blessings in disguise; for they offer the opportunity, even present the necessity, of rising above the material seeming into the realm of spiritual reality, there to behold and declare man's present perfection as the son of God. In discoursing on the uses of suffering, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 322), Mrs. Eddy writes: "The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life in divine Science." Can one doubt the great benefit, even the unspeakable blessing, arising from any experience, however distressful to material sense it may seem, which turns us away from the false concept of man to the true idea, the real man who is the son of God? None can gainsay that the greatest blessing which can by any possibility accrue to a mortal is to learn of his true self-hood as a son of God. For this understanding, in proportion to its depth, ushers him into the very presence of God, of infinite Love, where he finds man perfect and blessed beyond the ability of mortal consciousness to comprehend. How meaningful, then, are our Leader's words!
But the false consciousness called mortal mind, without ability to reach beyond its own limited horizon, struggles to retain its prestige within its own realm; it resists all attempts to replace its falsities by spiritual truth. Why this resistance? Because the false sense foresees its own destruction by the militant truth; it knows its inability to withstand the power of Truth, which is omnipotent. Hence its resistance, a resistance which at times assumes such proportions as readily to be mistaken for reality. Sometimes, mortals are tempted to cry out against what appears like untoward fate, irresistible in its seeming power and terrible in its outward aspect and implications. Not alone the present conditions terrify, but those that threaten would fill one with terror. Mortal mind not only terrifies with its present arguments, but it foretells dire things ahead.
