PAUL learned many lessons from the Roman soldiers and athletes with whom he was closely associated for several years. He said, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." While attending a performance one evening in company with others, a new line of thought was opened up to a student of Christian Science. Since childhood she had feared the sense of height, feeling insecure and dizzy when she had ascended above the ground or when seeing others in ascension, so on this occasion, during the flying trapeze work and aerial leaps, when a difference in the calculation of a second would mean a fall, if not destruction to those involved, such sensations governed her that she would not look up during that period of the performance. Instead she quietly devoted herself to controlling and calming her thought before it was noticed by the rest of the party. Later, for her own betterment, she endeavored to analyze her sense of fear and trace its origin.
It was soon apparent that its foundation was the old mesmeric belief that man is body; that the material law of gravitation is power; that matter can handicap, hinder, and prevent man from rising above its law of limitation, ultimately defeating him and forcing his downfall,—all of which, had the performers been bound by it, would have made their feats impossible. She found that through material eyes she was looking at a matter man, seeing in him and in his work only defeat, and so, overcome with fear herself, she was doing all that was possible to produce such results as she was anticipating. But thinking longer and rising into a higher mental altitude, she reasoned thus: Why should anyone fear and refuse to see height? Does not God fill all space? Is not God expressed in the air as surely as on the earth? Paul said, "For I am persuaded, that neither...height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God." Although those performing in the air may not be consciously realizing the truth of God's all-presence and power, still they know that such feats are possible or they would not attempt them. Thought precedes action. So it is really thought that governs the persons who ascend in mid-air. These individuals having already liberated themselves to some extent from mesmeric beliefs of limitation, prove themselves correspondingly immune from false mental suggestion and fear, and apply themselves to the accomplishment of that which they know to be possible. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 199), "Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it....His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear."
Thought uninfluenced by fear and awakened to man's possibilities in a certain direction, is proof against mental suggestion and can hold its own as safely and as naturally in mid-air as on the ground. In the freer atmosphere of this mental unfoldment and enlightenment the student faced her former concept of man and asked herself this question: If mortal man, uninstructed in divine Science, could and did find it natural and normal to break the man-made laws as to what constitutes man's capabilities and his environment, to what height of thought, with its demonstration, should not the one who has awakened to discern spiritual man, in God's image and likeness, ascend? Breaking through the prison walls of doubt and fear, should it not be possible to the extent of here and now mounting up into spiritual realms,—at least into moments or periods of spiritual discernment and demonstration, without physical handicap, being as it were "caught away" by the Spirit as were Moses, Elisha, Elijah, Christ Jesus, John, Philip, and Paul? Our dear Leader says (Science and Health, p. 325), "Then shall man be found, in His likeness, perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, 'hid with Christ in God,'—with Truth in divine Love, where human sense hath not seen man."
God's child surely cannot be afraid to think in unlimited terms,—in terms of mental freedom, fullness, and strength. "Ye timid saints," says one of our hymns, "fresh courage take." Through thinking out this experience in the light of Christian Science and thereby gaining a deeper insight into the spiritual law involved, this student has been enabled in her later work frequently to benefit by the lesson learned. She made special application of it the very next day.
In performing her daily duties the morning hours were most uplifting, bringing a sense of refreshment and inspiration wherein work was joyous, spontaneous, purposeful, and with results; but during that testing time called "the burden and heat of the day," when duties, needs, and complications with their tax on physical and mental endurance seemed to congest into sometimes overwhelming proportions, it was more difficult to stand and maintain a poise of thought with resultant physical harmony. At such times instead of controlling the situation by refuting the material arguments with the understanding of Truth, she more often found herself succumbing to material sense, defeated, discordant, and disheartened. But on this day, by reason of the experience above mentioned, she was prepared to hold with firmer grasp to the truth of being, and to take a stronger and more persistent stand against the influence of mental suggestion, seeing it more clearly for the deception it is, and realizing, as Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 355), that "to strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea."
In a more marked degree than ever before she is now able to rise above sense testimony by lifting thought to God, through the way of Christ, Truth; she is thus able to see that if spiritual man, God's image and likeness, is governed and sustained by Principle at any one time, or under any one circumstance, he is equally supported at all times and under all circumstances. Two and two, for instance, are four, at midnight and during a tempest or drought as surely as during a period of light and peace—and may be seen to be so, without pressure or fatigue. Such understanding may be applied to the problem at hand with an assurance of demonstrable, scientific result. Truth is not intermittent, nor for special or favored circumstances. It is an eternal, spiritual fact. God is, all of the time, and there is enough of His presence as spiritual power to restore, regenerate, refresh, and renew always and all of the way, and spiritual man has ability and capacity to discern this and to express it. God being inexhaustible good, man's ability as the reflection of good is inexhaustible.
So clear and vitalizing was this realization of Truth, that the mesmerism of a material selfhood separate from God, with its discordant sense of nerves, overwork, and fatigue, was overcome, and in its place was experienced the truth of spiritual man at-one with God, harmonious, buoyant, and strong,—never a victim of circumstances, but having dominion over them. Thus with joy and clearness of vision she was able to finish the day's work with the sense of refreshment and inspiration which was previously confined to morning hours or exalted periods; and all this with a newly acquired sense of the dominion which is promised to God's children in the realm of Mind, and with a peace and assurance that, having once understood and demonstrated this spiritual law, knows it to be here to be utilized forever.
This liberation, expressed both mentally and physically, not only lasted during that day but has in a measure proved permanent, having withstood the pressure of busy hours and of adverse, critical conditions, as well as continued interruptions of the night's rest and early morning repose. In place of the old-time physical depletion and mental reaction, a steadfast inner renewal and ascending spiritual understanding have been increasingly attained in so far as she works faithfully in love and remains on guard at the door of thought. This experience has been very wonderful to the student; but wonderful as it is, and appreciated beyond words, it does not compare with the knowledge of the fact that this demonstrable understanding of Truth, or Principle, is revealed to us in Christian Science, and that we may, here and now, find our mental poise and independence,—our self-control,—thereby being enabled to remain superior to material conditions even while seemingly experiencing them, and to hold this sense of superiority to error at all times. Thus, in a small degree, yet certainly and consciously, has this Scripture been fulfilled in her daily mortal experience: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
