THE healing brought out in Christian Science is evidence that the individual healed is becoming acquainted with true Mind. The experience of healing is the beginning of a new relationship with Mind. It shows how inspired is the often quoted statement in Job, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee." The one healed begins the processes of clarification whereby he becomes more and more obedient to one Mind, one God; and so he progresses out of the desert land of mesmerism into the promised land of abundant good.
Examination of what has been called worldly-mindedness shows that a false sense of facts and values prevails therein. It might be said that mankind generally is under the influence of that mesmerism which is evidenced by such tendencies and beliefs as it was the purpose of the Ten Commandments to change and correct. The word "mesmerism" has been used to describe such influences as cause men to believe that to be true which is not actually so. Less than fifty years ago it was the common thing for audiences to be entertained by those calling themselves mesmerists. Exerting their influence upon susceptible persons, they would cause them to do absurd things for the amusement of the audience, to whom it was manifest that those who were acting strangely were under the influence of a false belief temporarily impressed upon them.
Let us consider in a broader sense the way in which the world generally is under the control of false belief. Almost everyone will admit that in a well-ordered world brotherly love would be natural and hatred unnatural. But history records the tale of Cain and Abel and story after story indicating the sad consequences of the indulgence of envy. It is upon such a wrong tendency as this that mesmerism often plays. Ambitious persons who desire preeminence are unscrupulous in appealing to the lower elements in other minds, apparently unaware of the way in which animosity may be aroused against individuals whom they misrepresent. In the excitement of political campaigns people seem to be forgetful of the requirement that a man should not bear false witness against his neighbor.
