Watching Point 398

398 — WATCH that you realize both the nothingness and powerlessness of error. These points may seem to be one, and so they are; yet at times students believe that they can perceive the powerlessness of error without recognizing its nothingness, or vice versa. Perhaps some manifestation of error has disappeared, and yet the impression has remained, that if one had not seen its powerlessness in time, the result might have been disastrous. This is not recognizing its utter nothingness. Would you believe that you might have been drowned, if you had not recognized that the water in a lake that is only a mirage had no power to drown you?

To prove that you do not fear a ghost, or believe in its power, you might not only have to dissipate the sense of its reality, but also sleep in the very room it was supposed to haunt, and do so peacefully, thus proving that you had not the slightest belief that it ever existed as a fact.

When disease seems to be present, divine wisdom calls upon us to overcome the claim by perceiving its nothingness. But if some condition remains for a season, we should recognize that it has not the slightest power to harm us. Jesus proved that he could prevent any phase of evil from touching him, by seeing its nothingness; then he turned around and permitted his enemies to wreak their full vengeance upon his corporeality, in order to prove that he was in no way harmed by the experience.

You cannot claim to have seen the full nothingness and powerlessness of a disease, if you believe that, unless Christian Science had saved you from it, it might have had a harmful effect. You must prove that it is absolutely unreal and untrue, not only by rising up with vigor to destroy it, but by calmly knowing that it has no power at all; hence even if it remained with you for a season, it could not possibly harm you.