Broad, general policies, and even whole codes of political or business morals, often become crystallized in the popular mind into one short slogan or phrase or a single word. "Self-determination" is a recent and notable example. "Democracy" might be called another. This shortening and simplifying of an ideal into an easily understood and easily remembered watchword is undoubtedly of tremendous benefit. It is at the same time, however, a source of danger in that it offers to error an opportunity to use the same word or slogan as a sort of sheep's clothing for more or less wolfish ideas. Thus at the time of the French Revolution, when the word "liberty" was an open sesame to men's confidence, it became so perverted by error that it was said of it at the time, "O Liberty! Liberty! How many crimes are committed in thy name!" A few years ago the word "system" came to stand for so much that was good and beneficial in the business world that it made an easy covering for many schemes of sheer red tape. No one can doubt that "freedom of speech" has recently been invoked as a popular label under which to advocate the most sinister anarchism and lawlessness.
It behooves the earnest Christian Scientist to be alert against accepting any of the schemes of mortal mind simply because they come marching up under the banner of some general slogan or phrase or word. A case in point at the present time is the much invoked phrase, "We must be practical." Now to be practical is obviously a fine thing. It is an excellent slogan. Every Christian Scientist, for his own good and for the good of watching humanity, should every day strive always to be practical. But just because it is so manifestly right, we may be sure that mortal mind will seize upon it, and has already seized upon it, as a camouflage for such errors as we would promptly reject if they wore their own clothes. This always has been and always will be one of the tempter's last-resort tactics. We should be ready for it.
Webster defines "practical," in its application to a proposition or a thing, as that which is "available, usable, or valuable in practice or action... capable of being turned to use or account." As applied to a person it means one "given or disposed to action as opposed to speculation ... capable of applying knowledge to some useful end." In a word, then, that measure or thing is practical which can successfully be put into actual practice, and that person is practical who can and does put what he knows to good use. Mrs. Eddy was one of the most practical people, in the correct sense of the term, that the world has ever known, for she never failed to put what she knew to a good use. All through her writings it can plainly be seen that not a single step in Christian Science was proposed by her until she had proved it to be practical; that is, "available, usable, capable of being turned to use or account." As she succinctly says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 323), "We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated."
Now the well grounded Christian Scientist need never fear mortal mind disputing with him on any such clear-cut issue as that. Mortal mind's way is to join lustily in with the cry, "Be practical,"—that is, put what you know into practice, and then to stir up confusion as to what it is that we know, which should now be put to good use. When, for instance, in a matter of business, the course dictated by an understanding of Science and by obedience to the Sermon on the Mount seems hopelessly contrary to the dictates of what we have accepted as "good business," mortal mind whispers, "Be practical." But let us have the truth. Does this mean put our knowledge of Christian Science into practice, or our so-called knowledge of "practical business"? When, in a matter of physical health, the demonstration of the "scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468) seems to go hopelessly against long accepted material laws, or to mean a sure risk of infection or later consequences, mortal mind whispers, "Be practical." Practical what? Practical Christian Scientist, or practical student of hygiene? Let us know the truth about it in each case before we open the gates.
We are told in the Sermon on the Mount, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," but mortal mind whispers, "Be practical—every one needs money." We are told, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on," but mortal mind whispers, "Be practical. One cannot live without food, and you can't be healthy if you don't exercise all the muscles of the body every morning." Was Jesus, then, impractical? Mrs. Eddy having said in Science and Health (p. 271), "The Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is its outcome," was she too, then, merely the blind being led by the blind?
Mind you, the tempter knows better than to make any such clean-cut statement as that. He never leaves it in any such easy shape for us to handle. He goes on whispering: "I didn't say the Sermon on the Mount was impractical. But simply that you had better not try to demonstrate it all as yet. You have Mrs. Eddy's own word for such caution. Has she not said on page 254 of Science and Health, 'To stop eating, drinking, or being clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence are gained step by step, is not legitimate'? She meant we should be practical. Again, on page 329 of Science and Health, did she not say, 'One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freezing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames'? Why," exclaims the tempter triumphantly, "even Jesus himself gives you authority for following commonly accepted practices. Did he himself not say, 'Suffer it to be so now'?"
Who of us has not found himself involved in just such a maze of subtleties? If we are wise we will pin the tempter down right there. Of what did Jesus say, "Suffer it to be so now"? Of a concession to the methods of material medicine or the theories of physical culturists? Of a falling back on the practices of ''business is business"? Let us demand the truth. If we study the Scriptures we find that what Jesus suffered to be so for the time was no human measure of sanitation or hygiene, but simply the baptism of John! What he did was not to take advantage of some practice of "good business" but to acquiesce with a beautiful humility in a ceremony that, while it could have been of no particular avail to Jesus, was a great step forward for the Jews of that day and hence worthy to be encouraged. A very different thing, this suffering to be so now of John's preaching until Jesus was ready to begin his own ministration, from the sort of physical timidity and business sharp practice which mortal mind seeks so often to foist upon us under the cloak of Jesus' advice. So much for mortal mind's attempt to pervert the meaning of Jesus' words. Now what of the authority it so glibly quotes from our Leader?
Mrs. Eddy did indeed say it would be illegitimate for us at this stage to attempt to go without food or material clothing, and she did indeed say a Christian Scientist should not attempt to remain out in a storm when the body is freezing, or in the flames when being burned. But no one can fairly and intelligently study these and similar statements in the light of all her writings and all her life without coming to see that they were not made in the same sense or with the same ends in view as mortal mind is working for when it suggests that to "be practical" we must take special exercises or undergo preventive operations or follow the commonly accepted practices of sharp business or resort to legalistic sophistries or subterfuges.. The right statement is made, as analysis will show, exactly in the same spirit, and with a similarly clear grasp of essential truth, that Jesus showed when he repelled the flippant suggestion of the tempter that he turn the stones into bread, just to test his power as the Son of God.
The world-old tempter in this day presents the same jeering challenge, "Why, if matter is not real, do you Christian Scientists eat? Why do you bundle up in winter? Why should you be afraid to stand in fire?" The challenge should not deceive. We must recognize it for what it is, just as Jesus recognized it when it came in the form of the taunt. "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down"— from the pinnacle of the temple, the wily suggestion being made that "if you are the Son of God as you say you are, why, you can't be hurt by a mere fall; God will bear you up." Jesus' answer to the tempter was sharp: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." And that is the right answer to-day. To attempt any demonstration when there is no real necessity for it in our lives, not for the purpose of doing good but simply to satisfy idle curiosity, or to make a test of God's power, or to make a spectacle in the eyes of men, is as illegitimate for us to-day as Jesus considered it to be for him. But to try to stretch this wholesome advice against illegitimate demonstration until it covers every case where the Christ, Truth, goes contrary to any deeply felt material belief or prized practice of "good business" is perversion.
Jesus was supremely practical. Using his power over matter to turn the stones into bread or to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple just "to see what would happen" would not have been putting knowledge to good use nor would it be so for a Christian Scientist to-day. Later, when necessity demanded it for the good of others, he did provide bread in the wilderness, and by walking on the water he did prove the nothingness of matter even more effectively than he would have by casting himself from the pinnacle of the temple, and thus, it is our privilege to believe, the earnest and practical Christian Scientist would find himself perfectly capable of demonstrating over the need of material food or material protection from the elements if the doing of God's work should ever make it imperative that he do without these.
When Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, commanded that we should not lay up treasures for ourselves on earth, nor take thought of the clothing and feeding of our bodies, nor for the preservation of material health, he did not say and his words leave no loophole by which it can honestly be inferred that he meant that we would get along in this phase of existence without money or without food or without clothing and houses or without bodily health. On the contrary he closed these particular commandments with the beautiful illustrations of the fowls of the air, how they are fed, and the lilies of the field, how they are clothed, by the provisions of divine Principle, and then came the key to the intense practicalness of his teachings: "For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." So Mrs. Eddy, on page 442 of Science andHealth, says, "Christ, Truth, gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually."
Jesus was indeed the most practical man the world has ever known, and the Bible, as well as the interpretation of his teachings which Mrs. Eddy has given us, is the best guide in everyday life that we have to-day. The writer has proved it both in business experi ence and in bodily health. Let us not be deceived. Whatever violates the plain, simple commandments of the Sermon on the Mount is not practical for the Christian Scientist because it is not putting to good use what he knows, since our Leader has shown us how to apply these teachings to daily affairs. Whatever is putting into use what you know about Christian Science is practical, and nothing else is. Whoever or whatever suggests to you that you omit obedience to a single provision of the Sermon on the Mount in order to "be practical," should be made to answer the question, "Practical what?" A practical student of Mrs. Eddy's works and follower of Jesus the Christ, or a practical adherent of physical hygiene and "cold business"?
