TO those instructed in Christian Science, seeming adversity is seen to furnish opportunity for overcoming, through which are gained valuable lessons and spiritual compensations. In overcoming the ills which attend a false mortal sense of existence there come a peace, a strength, and a comfort which are invaluable aids to a continuous and greater overcoming. This increasing understanding also operates as a preventive of untoward conditions, for there is no measuring of the good which Christian Science is able to and does accomplish as a prophylactic. The joy of spiritual overcoming is beautifully expressed by Mrs. Eddy in the following stanza from her poem "Mother's Evening Prayer" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 389; Poems, p. 4:
"O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill —since God is good, and loss is gain."
It is comforting to reflect on the Scriptural statement that Jesus "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Temptation came to him in varied forms. In his forty days in the wilderness, as related in the fourth chapter of Matthew, insidious, impersonal evil in its most artful and flattering guises confronted Jesus. When he was hungry, the devil suggested that he should make bread of stones. Then came the suggestion of ambition that he cast himself from a "pinnacle of the temple" in proof of his power; and finally came the suggestion to worship materiality in order to possess, as a reward, an abundance of earthly things. The lesson is plain. A materialist could indeed readily surrender to such temptations; Christ Jesus, never! Thus the Master quickly overcame these wiles craftily spread before him, and he did this through prompt and absolute reliance on God, who supplied his daily bread, to whom mortal aspirations for worldly influence and power are unknown, and who alone is entitled to be worshiped, or served. Then, as we are told, the devil left him, and in vivid contrast "angels came and ministered unto him."
