Imperial Valley press., 1917-01-29

ing the matter and he should just
forget it-as we yet occasionally hear,
even in this enlightened period.
What it means is that if the sick
man has been regarding disease as
heing something that it in fact is not,
and governing his conduct, and es-
pecially his thinking, accordingly,
his difficulty doubtless lies very much
in that direction, and he certainly
will be helped, not harmed, by learn
ing to see disease for what it is. He
needs not to shut his eyes, but to
open them. For instance, it would
be difficult to conceive Of anything
more depressing than for the victim
of suffering to believe that in some
unaccountable way divine purpose is
being accomplished by means of his
painful experience. Therefore one of
the things that the sick man needs
to know is that his Maker is not a
party to his undoing, not in the re-
motest degree. With that thought
clearly implanted in consciousness the
journey 'healthward has been we'll be-
gun and the succeeding stages should
follow in natural sequence. He needs
to know that since infinite intelli-
gence in its very nature could not be
the author of such discordant con-
dition as sickness, and since, if God
be omnipotent, there is no other
power than could be its author, the
basis then of sickness, like ignorance,
and other forms of evil, must be
nonentity, or negation; not some
thing, but the absence or lack of
something.
In this way the sick man may
learn that disease is not the result
of any real law, but is the expression,
manifestation, or effect of certain err
roneous modes or habits of human
belief, which though they may have
been for ages formulating and fasten-
ing themselves upon an apparently
helpless humanity, are found on
examination to be utterly unlawful
and abnormal, and without justifica-
ton other than that mankind for a
long time has been asserting and sub
mitting to them.
1t is just as if the people of ma
ton for years had permitted them
selves to be governed by an enact
ment which they supposed to be a
law, but which when finally tested
in their higher courts has been dis
cerned to be not a law, but an un-
warranted assumption of power and
authority. There never had been real
occasion for any one to yield obedi-
ence to its terms, and those who were
influenced to do SO, in following the
line of common consent, and who suf-
fered inconvenience and loss thereby,
were at no time suffering from the
workings of law; they suffered only
from their erroneous submission to
that which was not law at all, but
the absence of law, negation. Had
these people been better informed,
they would have been disposed to re-
sist rather than to submit. Resist
ance would have been of little avail,
however, unless conducted on intelli-
gent and well-defined lines. Thus,
if those who first discerned the fall
sity of the alleged law were to have
undertaken merely to defy it, without
establishing their right to do so in ac-
cordance with the orderly processes
for testing the validity of an enact
ment, they doubtless would have in
vited more trouble than they were for
the time being capable of meeting
The citizen who is even half wise will
not dispute points of law with the
policeman who undertakes to enforce
against the liberty of that citizen q
rule or regulation that the citizen
knows to be unlawful. There is a
proper and adequate way for him to
obtain his rights, and the more he
resists the policeman the less stand
ing he may have in the court to which
he must finally appeal.
ORDERLY RESISTANCE TO FALSE
LAW
Christian Science discloses to its
students that the accumulated belief
as laws Of health, but which might be
termed more appropriately laws of
disease, are not really laws, being d.
rectly at variance with the divine and
true law, and therefore in their final
analysis utterly impotent and void.
The Christian Scientist therefore
knows he has a right to resist. but he
knows also that fighting in the street
with the policeman, figuratively
speaking, is not the way to make his
resistance effective. In becoming &
Christian Scientist, therefore, it is not
necessary for one to assume an atti-
tude of strutting about with chip
on ones shoulder, challenging cold
drafts, germs, accidents, neighbor-
hood opinions and other unpleasant
things, to do their worst.
The genuine Christian Scientist is
not queer or spectacular person.
He does not seek trouble, though
when trouble arrives he usually finds
he can meet it with less fear than
before, and with better demonstra-
ton of the odiminion over evil that is
natural attribute of mans real self.
The method he employs for annul-
ling unjust enactments with regard
to health is an orderly method, in
which the beginning is not mistaken
for the ending, nothing is assumed
or taken for granted, nor is step num-
ber two attempted until step number
one has been mastered. The factors
that cause the human body to respond
with a percentage of similar symp
toms under similar circumstances,
and which because of this tendency
Il l. L