IN a world where materialism in all its forms is aggressive, where, in human belief, the suggestions of evil are rife, where the evidences of want and woe and sin are ever at hand, the Christian Scientist finds his shield against these trials and his shelter from these temptations in the knowledge of the truth which Christian Science brings to him. This understanding of Truth must be sustained in his thinking. It must be so established with him that it becomes the natural and spontaneous outlook upon existence. He must be ready at each instant to reject the false claims of materiality and to keep thought so fortified in the knowledge of God's presence and power that the mist of temptation can never prevail. This is essential, if he would succeed in the demonstration of Christian Science.
He who mentally stands in the attitude of Christian Science treatment affirms and strives to realize the revealed truth about God, about man and the universe, and is alert to the claims of evil. The truth about God is His allness; His all-power as Spirit, as divine Mind, as divine Principle, as the tender, loving Father-Mother, caring for the welfare of all creation. The truth about man and the universe is the fact of their existence here and now in the spiritual perfection of the infinite Love from which they spring and in which they have radiant, endless being. And the truth about the claims of evil is their nothingness—their utter nothingness in the real universe, where God and His infinite idea constitute the whole of being.
To keep this spiritual outlook upon real being, the Christian Scientist must be consistently thinking and living according to the ways of Truth and Love. To theorize about the sunlight, for example,—to speculate about it, to tell others how it warms the earth and how it makes things grow,—does not in the least warm the earth or make things grow. Not a spear of grass would respond to any amount of talking about the sunlight. The sun itself must appear; its own light and warmth must be poured upon and into the earth; and then all things rise in gladness under its loving, reviving presence. So with Truth and Love. They must actually be lived, warming our lives and affections, turning them from self to service, from indifference to tender consideration for the welfare of everybody and everything. And to maintain this spiritually right position and to persevere in these good ways of Truth and Love, the Christian Scientist at all times needs the shield and buckler of the arguments of Truth.
