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.
The gardener who at the approach of spring goes forth with pruning-knife in hand to put his shrubs, trees, and vines in order for the coming season, probably does not think of his task as a lesson in metaphysics, but the lesson is there for those who are alert to heed it. With practised eye he notes the need of each shrub or vine, and in his skilled hands the keen blade quickly yet tenderly does its work. The dead wood is cutaway, unsightly excrescences are removed, scraggly branches are trimmed into shapeliness—steadily and unsparingly the work goes on and the pile of debris grows, until every last bush and vine has felt the friendly touch. And all to what end? That the rose may bud and blossom in greater beauty and fragrance, and the vine and fruit tree yield more abundantly, in fulfilment of Jesus' words: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit."
It was only a step from this practical illustration to its demonstration as Jesus went about his mission of healing the sick and the sinning, to the end that they might bring forth fruit meet for the kingdom of God. No one can do his best work who is hampered by these self-imposed fetters. Like the runner who would speed swiftly to the goal, every least encumbrance to his freedom must be cast away. Sickness and sin, self-indulgence and bad habits,—these are the rank growths, the unfruitful branches which we must recognize as such and cast them away, that the fruitful buds may have room to develop and burgeon- in a wealth of beauty and fragrance,—a life redolent with goodness, such as befits a follower of Christ Jesus.
This is the call to every Christian. "Let us," counseled the great apostle, "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Yet how we shrink from the pruning-knife, hesitate to thrust it in and cut away the branches which, though covered with leaves and perchance fair to the eye, are yet without fruit. Every indulgence of greed, envy, jealousy, malice, hatred, and their brood of attendant evils, is a yielding to the one evil whose chief effort it is to keep us from our heritage as children of the all-Father. Whether we recognize it as such or not, we permit it, and then wonder why we do not attain! We cannot attain until we are ready to be obedient to the precepts of the great Teacher, precepts which, as Mrs. Eddy tells us, "require the disciple to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye,—that, is, to set aside even the most cherished beliefs and practices, to leave all for Christ" (Science and Health, p. 141).
How true it is that until we are ready to deny ourselves, and take up the cross to follow Jesus, we cannot be his disciples! We cannot heal the sick until we have first put ourselves right with God. We must forgive as we would be forgiven; we must love as we would be loved, even though in so doing we heap "coals of fire" on those who have wronged us. There is only one to whom we can with surety turn with the prayer, "Deliver us from evil," and that is, God, ever the great deliverer of those who trust Him unreservedly, having "no other gods," no other helpers. And when we have thus cleared our own consciousness of all evil, every last vestige of wrong thinking, then joy and peace and hope and courage will take up their abode with us, and we shall fear no foe, either within or without, for we can declare with David, "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;" because where God is, there is neither place nor power for evil of any nature.
