The world! What do we mean by the world? The place where men dwell; where men live out their little day in the midst of pleasures and pains, joys and sorrows, friendships and enmities, likes and dislikes; and then to mortal sense cease to be? A strange medley is the world, made up of the whole gamut of human emotions and sensations, enlightened undoubtedly to some extent by spiritual understanding. For the world is not merely the name of a place where it is all evil; that would surely be an erroneous view of it. The world believes in both good and evil; so that it might be defined as the place where men dwell, and where the knowledge of good struggles for the mastery over the false belief of evil.
Often, however, the world is referred to, broadly, as that which is opposed to good. For example, there is the saying of James, "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" If the friendship of the world be enmity against God, obviously "the world" alluded to by the apostle represents that which is opposed to God, namely, evil. Again, John says, "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." It is as if John were thinking of the world as the unreal beliefs of men, which, because they are unreal, must pass away; whereas, real or true thoughts, the thoughts which reflect divine Truth, are indestructible. By implication, moreover, John's words may also be construed as pointing to the world as the place where good and the belief of evil are to be found in temporal combat. Then, furthermore, we have the words of Christ Jesus to his disciples, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." It is in the world that the two kinds of plants—the tares and the wheat— seem to grow together, the tares representing evil beliefs and evil deeds, and the wheat, that which the heavenly Father hath planted, all that is good,—the thoughts of Truth and Love and Life.
There, then, we have the world. It is well-nigh two thousand years since Christ Jesus told the children of men to seek first "the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Have they heeded his voice? Are they doing so to-day? It is pathetically true that far more than the majority of the human race remain steeped in materialism; and equally true that many of these are content to continue in the lethargic material dream which is a species of death. When Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science, the world was notoriously asleep spiritually, even although at the very zenith of its activity in discovery along material lines. Sickness was accepted as the inevitable result of the working of irresistible physical law; evil was considered to be an inscrutable curse which a tortured world was forced to bear, that which undermined the happiness of men and at last destroyed them. Mrs. Eddy saw through the whole worldly lie. She was led through revelation, spiritual understanding, and demonstration to the great discovery that evil in every form and under whatsoever disguise, is unreal. She beheld God as All-in-all, as omnipotent, omnipresent Mind or Spirit; and the knowing of this truth revealed to her the fact, which is being gradually acknowledged by the world, that evil is unreal. Christian Science declares that there is not an iota of truth or reality in evil; that it has neither presence nor power. That which the world calls evil is false belief, a lie, an illusion of material sense. And evil is, furthermore, the satellite of matter, so-called matter itself being an erroneous concept of God's real creation of spiritual ideas.
