AS ever changing human events are recorded in the public press, particular words are often brought into frequent and general use in connection with certain movements or reforms. Sometimes such words come to acquire, in the general thought, meanings which are limited by their particular association. Thus, much is heard nowadays of "nullification," generally in the sense of the nullification of a good law, either through repeal, or through nonobservance or nonenforcement.
As the Christian Scientist goes about his daily work of bringing spiritual healing to the world through his realization of the truth, it is well for him to watch that he does not admit into his own thinking a belief in the possibility that any good law can actually be nullified, as the present common use of the word would so subtly suggest. That is, he must distinguish between the power of right to annul wrong, and the false claim of evil to annul that which is right.
The efforts of evil are always destructive; they are continually being exerted in the direction of tearing down; and every reform, every human law, which marks an advance toward righteousness, becomes the object of evil's hatred and wrath. The Christian Scientist is engaged in resisting evil, in accordance with the Scriptural injunction, that it may flee from him and from all mankind as well. Because it has been learned that human liberties, so dearly won, can be retained only at the price of eternal vigilance, the Christian Scientist does not omit to join with his fellow-men in taking those wise human footsteps necessary for the preservation of freedom and the protection of reforms. At the same time he recognizes that, after all, his most effective weapon in this warfare is not carnal, but spiritual; and that it is prayer. The Christian Scientist is praying daily that God's kingdom may come on earth; and his prayer is the prayer of affirmation, of understanding, of spiritual knowing. The question then arises, What must he know about the subject of nullification? What must the word stand for to him?
