The importance of adopting an unvarying attitude of active resistance to the encroachments of evil, error of every sort, is an emphasized point in the teaching of Christian Science. We are all liable, if not to forget this, at least to minimize in thought the necessity for continual watchfulness, and for active resistance to aggressive intimation. Passive resistance is of no avail in the warfare with mortal mind. The cross must be taken up daily. Christ Jesus enjoined his disciples to "watch and pray," and nothing could be clearer than James' statement: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Later we find the apostle Peter, who had learned so painfully how far even an earnest follower of Christ may stumble, if the enemy take him unawares, saying: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
In learning to resist all that is unlike God, we find that mental apathy is the very opposite of the activity of divine Mind. As our Leader says (Science and Health, p. 240), "Mind is perpetual motion;" to have that Mind in us "which was also in Christ Jesus," we must be continually clad in the whole armor of God, and meet every attack with the truth that destroys evil of every sort; neither yielding to error nor being vanquished by it, but overcoming it in the consciousness of man's God-given dominion through the power of the word. We cannot hope that our ascending path will at once become easier, but with each successful proof of the weapons of our warfare, we must gain confidence as well as strength and understanding, while each step nearer the goal of good shows us more and ever more of the beauty and desirability of the crown of righteousness which awaits the victor.
As students of Christian Science we soon learn that while it is demanded of us that we should be patient with ourselves, that the absolute is not required of us "until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won" (Science and Health, p. 254); nevertheless we must never adopt the world's frequent attitude of tolerance, for this surely is to don the very mask of Satan, behind which evil of every kind lurks in hideous aspect. To be compassionate toward all who are bound in the shackles of false belief, to strive to acquire that largehearted charity which covereth a multitude of sins, is in no sense to be tolerant of a single claim of error, and it behooves us to be watchful against and ever alert to this most insidious form of aggressive evil.
