The Monticellonian., 1916-10-05

Encouragement Is dangerous be-
cause it invites and developes those
evil thoughts that later may be mani
tested in evil things, the most COM
mon of which is disease in its varied
forms.
Perhaps. I may bring this more
forcefully before you by relating lit
tie fable, a bit of folk lore, so simple
that child may understand it, but
which illustrates the point would
would bring to your notice, that dis
couragement is an active agency of
evil, but which could accomplish moth
ing if gratitude were given its right
full place in your thought.
1t is a story told of that mythical,
unreal character, commonly known as
the devil, that notorious Pigment of
| the imagination. invented ages ago by
men who mistakenly believed that to
personalize evil was the only way to
make it feared and summed.
The other party in the story is an
old farmer, who, travelling in
strange land. came across an odd
looking building unlike anything he
had ever seen. He entered and found
it was a warehouse in which were
kept the seeds of those evil thoughts
that spring up in mans heart when
ever Satan gets busy planting. There
he saw great piles of bags, each filled
with the seeds of some evil thought.
One pile was marked malice, another
envy, another jealousy, another
hatred, another deceit, another sem
suousness, another hypocrisy, another
cruelty, another revenge-vice in ev-
cry form. Apart from the rest was a
pile very much larger than all the 9TH
ers and strange to say was marked
Encouragement"
While the farmer was wondering
about this, as the story goes, the devil
himself came along, and so the farmer
questioned MIN and said, "How is it
that you have so much of discourage
ment here? | did not know that be-
longed to YOU" The devil grinned,
mot many people do know that it be-
longs to me-" he said, " and | do not
propose that they shall. But | use
more of that than of any of the other
seeds you see here. Most people when
they discover these other seeds spring
ing up IN their mental gardens know
that | have done the sowing and they
pull them up for that reason. In such
cases | only need to plant little bit
of Encouragement and that changes
things considerably. For discourage
ment will grow everywhere, it
springs up quickly and hides and con-
ceals and keeps out of sight these 9TH
er things until they are strong enough
to stand alone. And it is such
harmless looking weed that very few
people suspect that | have anything
to do with it, so they take no pains to
pull it up"
After this long speech of the devils
the farmer thought a moment and
then he said, "You say discourage
ment will grow everywhere. Will it
grow everywhere ?" The devil frown-
ed. "Whhy, no." he said, "there is one
place where | never could get discour-
agement to grow" where is that"
asked the farmer. "Why, that" said
the devil, lis the heart of grateful
mani"
So. my friends, whenever you see
the dark and heavy leaves of discour-
agement growing in your mental gar
den, just remember that underneath
them, out of your sight and unsus-
| pected by You may be reaching out
the roots of those evil thoughts that
grip and dwarf and sap a mans very
character. Pull them up! Uproot
them. Or, better yet, let your heart
be so filled with gratitude to God that
Encouragement can find no foothold.
| Do you remember what an inspiring
example was set for us in that direc-
ton by Jesus, when he began his
prayer with the words, Father, |
thank thee" And if ever the sower
of evil seeds tempts you to believe
that you have little to be thankful for,
consider the many things you have
this very day that you would not
want to do without and then note
how few of them were possessed by
him who in speaking of himself said
"The foxes have holes, and the birds
of the air have nests; but the Son of
man hath not where to lay his head"
And yet he prayed Father, thank
thee"
The Bible tells us that the prayer
of faith shall save the sick. What
may we not expect then of the prayer
in which there is not only the abund-
ance of faith but also of understand
ing, of that essential knowledge of
God, of wisdom, of gratitude, of I'M
selfed love? And every Christian
Science treatment that is made up of
these elements of righteousness, as
every Christian Science treatment
should be made up, heals the sick and
the SHINING and comforts the sor-
rowing, and with it comes conscious
ness of Gods protecting care and in
finite affection, a consciousness that
leads to higher aspirations and pur-
er desires, that makes men and
women want to be better and want to
know how to be better, that they
may share in Gods infinite mercy
and justice and love.
Attitude of Christian Science
To The Rockey Mountain News:
The large number of living witness
es to the healing efficacy of Gods law
as explained by Christian Science is
evidently rousing other Christian be-
| levers from their apathy on this sub
| ject. From two Denver pupils last
Sunday evening sermons relating to
! healing were delivered-one dealing
with healing as reasonable, the sub
ject of the other being 1.-THE Christian
Science of the Bible"
The kindly attitude of both preach
ers makes it more regrettable that
their misconception of the teaching of
Christian Science misstatements.
All believers in Christ Jesus will ad-
nit that the hailing wrought by the
Master and his followers was in ac-
cord with Gods law, which law must
be the same now as then, since God is
"the same yesterday, and today, and
forever" Hence it must necessarily
follow that the understanding of and