EVERY individual who adheres to the tenets of Christian Science "has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death" (Science and Health, p. 450), and his success in this undertaking depends entirely upon his ability to make a practical and right application of the Principle revealed. In fact, no ethical system of religion or philosophy makes such constant appeals for right thinking and right doing, as does Christian Science. This need not, however, frighten the beginner, for the process is simple, and if his turning to Truth is the result of individual inclination, prompted by an honest desire to forsake evil habits, regeneration has begun, and eventually, as the light dispels the darkness, he will love good and hate evil, and thus usher himself over the threshold of a larger experience and a greater joy,— the privilege of doing good unto others.
At this point of mental ascension, added spiritual discernment is necessary, and one should pray without ceasing for the Mind of Christ, lest error pervert our sense of Truth, by temporarily obscuring the spirit with the letter of Science. At the zenith of his mental liberation, the devil took Jesus up into an high mountain, and shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world, and said to him, "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." It was a supreme test of his life, a momentous occasion, and a waiting world hung on his decision. Jesus met the adversary quickly and with a single sentence, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He put behind him the evil suggestion.
Down the corridors of time the lie still whispers, and every human being must meet with the enemy as did the Master. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" means "Accept and be governed by Christian Science," work out your salvation with the Principle revealed. Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing, for that evil which presents itself in the disguise of good, with an assumption of power, is the subtler enemy, the Herod to truth, the letter which killeth. and which leads to darkness and death.
