IN an address to the alumni of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, twenty years ago, Mrs. Eddy said: "Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously, or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fervently, for deliverance from the claims of evil. Thus doing, Scientists will silence evil suggestions, uncover their methods, and stop their hidden influence upon the lives of mortals. . . . The increasing necessity for relying on God to defend us against the subtler forms of evil, turns us more unreservedly to Him for help, and thus becomes a means of grace. If one lives rightly, every effort to hurt one will only help that one; for God will give the ability to overcome whatever tends to impede progress" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 114).
Here we have the counsel that is just as true and just as applicable to the Christian Scientists of today and of the ages to come, as when first spoken by our revered Leader. Even as Jesus warned his followers, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world," so Mrs. Eddy foresaw that those who had enlisted in the warfare against evil must not only be on guard against the open enemy, but more especially defend themselves from hidden foes. While she saw clearly the varied forms this insidious destroyer might assume, and warning us against them, pointed out the means of deliverance, it seems to be the rule that one must work out his salvation in the school of experience, particularly when, as often happens, he finds that the foe hardest to overcome is that carnal mind within himself which Paul tells us is "enmity against God."
How, then, shall we recognize this evil and set about its overcoming? One does not have to read far in the record of the words and works of the great Teacher of mankind, to note how keen an observer he was of what might be termed the common every-day things of life, and what great truths he deduced from that which with the many would pass unheeded. The springing grass, the flowers of the field, the growing grain, the fowls of the air, the barren and the fruitful tree and vine,—from all of these so-called ordinary things the Master taught his students unforgettable lessons because so plain and practical.
