Watching Point 463

463 — WATCH that you do not hand out absolute statements of truth and thereby slap others in the face, as it were, when the application of truth to the human problem is what is called for. In 1940 one of our lecturers said to the British Ambassador, who inquired about his view on the war, “There is no war.” This answer given in this way was foolish and availed nothing, although it was the absolute truth.

It would have been far more helpful, had this lecturer explained that as Truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims, as Science and Health declares, error is urged to its final limits. He could have explained that war is a segment of the circle of mortal mind, as it goes from prosperity to want, envy, greed, hatred, and war. Hence war cannot be eliminated until mortal mind itself is disposed of.

Mrs. Eddy implies that students who go around making absolute statements — “stereotyped borrowed speeches” — do little more than buffet people with Christian Science. The adaptation of the truth one voices to the comprehension of the listener is as necessary as it is to be certain of its scientific basis. Truth that chemicalizes the listener should rarely be uttered.