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A MAD WORLD
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Fear is the most prolific source of all evil. Of Practically every man who has ever been into shadow of the Almighty. •.<...•. There shall no evil <
course if fear were understood in its full meta- action on land can tell you something of the sick- befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh
physical significance, it would be understood to be ening sensations of the first experience of battle. j thy dwelling." Yet, at the very moment when <
the provoking cause of all evil of every sort. But But as time goes on the veteran rises superior to the churches should be filling the minds of the <
even from the ordinary point of view of the the fears of the recruit, and daily takes his life in people with peace, and reassuring them of the r <
world, fear when it communicates itself to num- his hands, with a calmness which shows that he impotency of evil, it is proposed that these
bers, is capable of causing greater disaster than has learned something at any rate of the dominion churches shall be shut, and that the admission <
any other phase of the human consciousness. The over fear. It is surely obvious then that in an shall be made that it is dangerous for men and <
pagan philosophers realized that there was such a hour of great fear, when the prevailing tone of the women to congregate to worship God, for fear the <
thing as the fear of fear, in other words, as they human mind, in the midst of the conflict of Lord's arm is so shortened that He cannot contend
stated it, the fear of death was worse than death Armageddon, finds expression in an epidemic, that with microbes. On the other hand if people be- *
itself. Centuries later Shakespeare appropriated a Christian country should rather resort to its lieve that God sends pestilence into the world, for <
the idea, and put precisely the same sentiment into churches to relieve itself of its fears, than close ' the good of the world, what right have they to pro- <
the mouth of Isabella, in "Measure for Measure," their doors so as to sound the top note of human ' tect themselves against this pestilence, and to at- ,
and indeed, anyone who knows anything at all of agony in a belief that God's hand is so shortened tempt by the drinking of drugs, by methods of <
J \ history knows how disease was spread upon the that it cannot save. segregation, or by any means at all, to prevent the '
wings of fear in the case of that awful visitation anger of the Lord from taking effect. The very <
of the Fourteenth Century known as the Black Let any person who has been brought in ccn- fact that all men and women endeavor to protect <
Death, and again when a pestilence of a similar tact with the conditions of to-day ask himself themselves against disease, at all times, is the <
nature swept London, in the Seventeenth Century. frankly whether it is not fear which is playing proof, to any sane person, that in its heart the <
such fearful havoc in the world. Everywhere world does not believe that discord proceeds from
Some day the world will come to see that what men and women are afraid. Afraid in the areas Principle, that death comes out of Life, or that <
it calls contagion is a mental contagion, and that of war of. a storm blast that may at any moment reprisals are the work of Love. <
what it calls infection is the infection of one mind strike over them; afraid within the orbit of the <
from another. Orthodox medical practice to-day . air squadrons of the sound of the terrible engines The way, writes Mrs. Eddy, in a famous sen- <
largely recognizes this, but it draws back from the whirring in the darkness overhead, and of hearing tence on page 201 of Science and Health, s to ex- i
logical consequences of its own admission, and the bombs explode all round; boys sleeping fear- tract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth <
endeavors to shelter itself in a half-way-house, fully in the trenches, waiting for the summons in through flood-tides of Love. Now not even the
which is built partially out of mind and partially the gray morning to go over the top, and men and natural scientist will deny that the way to over- <
out of matter. Any person who has watched the women sleeping in towrts and villages, miles and come any condition at all, is to learn the truth <
ravages of such a disease as cholera in the East thousands of miles away, fearful of what in that about it. Until the truth has been learned a man i
must know exactly what this means. The European very moment rnay be happening to those whom fights with his hands tied behind him, or at the best
sahib, going about doing his duty, and quite fear- they love; men and women at sea, waiting as it like the boxer in the Greek games, who, Paul . i
less of consequences, moves through the cholera were for the explosion of torpedoes; or even men declared, beat the air. The Christian religion is <
camps with perfect immunity from the disease. But and women in immediate physical safety, won- perfectly clear on this point. Jesus of Nazareth '
the native, stricken by this disease, lies down al- dering what effect the war is going to have on their himself declared, Ye shall know the truth, and i
most where he is overcome by it, whether in his incomes and their lives. A great fear has stricken the truth shall make you free. If the truth will
* house or by the roadside, convinced, in the sud- the world, and it is little wonder if out of this fear not free men from microbes, it will not free them <
denness of the shock and the confusion of his fear, there have emerged pestilences and diseases which from anything at all. Now it is perfectly certain <
that the moment has come from which it is useless have mounted on the winds of fear, and scattered that if the truth about Christianity exists any- *
for him to attempt to escape. their seeds in every direction. where, it exists in the Bible, and that one way to
learn this truth is through the churches conse- i
In such conditions it is surely obvious that the In such circumstances what would it be ex- crated for the purpose of promulgating it, and not <
sanest treatment is to do everything possible to pected that a Christian community should do? by closing their doors in token of their impotency.
destroy fear. Fear in a Christian community ' Would it not, remembering the words of the Bible The church which closes its doors practically pro- <
should be self-condemned. Some nineteen cen- . that "perfect love casteth out fear," be to ask it- claims its impotency, and the admission is a ter
turies of reading the Johannine epistles should self if there were not something amiss with its un- * rible one when it is made in the hour of a nation's i
surely have effected this if Christendom is under- demanding of love which maks love powerless to need. If the arm of the Lord is so shortened that <
sanding what it reads. It is little to the point to overcome fear? And should it not naturally fling He cannot save, what is the good of the siren J
say that fear is uncontrollable, for any person wider open the doors of its churches, confident whistles to call people to prayer every day at mid- <
who has ever'had anyhing to do with causes that in doing right, by worshiping God, no ill could day? Is it to be supposed that the prayers for the
which produce fear knows that this is not the case. touch it? Have Christian countries so completely success of Truth in the war will be more success- <
Probably every man who has made the sea his come to distrust the doctrines they profess that ful than the prayers in the churches for freedom <
profession has been through periods of fear which the 91st Psalm is no longer a protection against from influenza? Let the sirens shriek on week *
he has had to overcome in order to gain that serene- fear and against disease, against pestilence and ' days, but the churches be closed on Sunday. *
ness in danger, without, which he would be against war: —"He that dwelleth in the secret Surely it was a wise man who once said, "A mad
a liability instead of an asset on board his ship. place of the most High shall tka .world, my masters!' <
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The ahove editorial from the Christian Science Monitor is published by 11
Christian Scientists in the hope that by recalling to the community the power
of Christian prayer to stop the ravages of disease, the tide of fear, which is j
i the most serious factor in perpetuating the present epidemic, may be stemmed. f
Committee on Publication For Pennsylvania. j
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SATURDAY EVENING,
HARJRISBTJRG TELEGRAPH
OCTOBER 26, 1918.
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