TO the students of Christian Science, nothing is more interesting than to trace the relation between the statements of Scripture which announce the establishment of God's kingdom among men, and the teachings of their text-book which make plain the part that every professed follower of Christ should take toward this end. To Christ Jesus, the kingdom of God with its life-giving laws was an eternal fact, but this was far from being the case with humanity at large; and though the religious teachers of his day doubtless admitted its existence, they practically denied the operation of its laws, which are always spiritual. His work, therefore, consisted in constantly declaring the divine law, in order that its ceaseless operation might be recognized by those who were suffering from the world-wide belief in material law with its pains and penalties, a belief which they had come to accept without protest because of their ignorance of the truth which sets free. The word, or declaration of Truth's allpower, was therefore the weapon used in the warfare between Truth and error, and our revered Leader tells us that "this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love" (Science and Health, p. 288).
It may be said that the most wonderful thing about Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science is that which relates to the use of the weapon designated by Paul as "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." In the forty-fifth psalm, where the Christ-idea is presented, we read, "Grace is poured into thy lips;" then follows the command, "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty." Here it should be noted that this mighty sword can never wound one of God's ideas, nor can it ever fail, when rightly wielded, to destroy the enemies of Truth and Love,—even sin, disease, and death, which are no less man's enemies.
There are so many passages in the Old Testament which deal with this subject, that we might suppose Jesus' effective use of the spiritual weapon would have been welcomed by all of his own nation at least. But no, their faith, except in a few rare cases, had been transferred to material means and measures; so that they were filled with scorn, then with anger, when he proceeded to prove to them the power of God's word. They did not stop to think that though the material sword could destroy the sense of life, it could never restore life to any one; yet Christ Jesus did this with the only weapon he ever used, namely, the word of God. Strange as it may seem, there were few indeed ready to welcome Mrs. Eddy's discovery of the fact that the sword of Spirit had lost none of its power since the days when it was so effectively wielded by the Master and his apostles. It may well be asked even now, how many there are outside of the ranks of Christian Science who would trust for their lives to this spiritual weapon rather than to the surgeon's knife, which can never go deep enough to reach causation. Yet the fact remains that unnumbered thousands have trusted the spiritual weapon, the word of God, and have been delivered from both sin and disease. To the Christian Scientist the sword of Spirit is not merely a figure of speech, it stands for omnipotence; but it calls for faith and understanding to use it against entrenched evil of every sort.
