The student of Christian Science knows he must keep constant watch that nothing unfit for development be permitted to lodge in his consciousness. He is aware that the Science of Christianity, discovered by Mary Baker Eddy, is valuable not only as a dependable cure for ills of all sorts, but also as a preventive of discord. Here, then, is recognized the necessity to be "instant in prayer," or, in other words, to realize at the moment of error's seeming onslaught that all evil is illusion, a pretense to power, to which none need yield if he has gained the understanding of the spiritual truth that man is exempt from evil, because God made him subject to good alone.
Are we faithful in rejecting error's pretense instantly? Or do we take the first signs of a so-called everyday illness lightly, and reason off-handedly that it will shortly disappear, since we do not really believe in it? Such a tacit reliance on time as able to terminate a belief in evil is a subtle temptation into which we may be drawn if not watchful. Then, if we find ourselves involved in further difficulty, do we wonder how we got there?
Mrs. Eddy writes (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 108), "The first state, namely, the knowledge of one's self, the proper knowledge of evil and its subtle workings wherein evil seems as real as good, is indispensable; since that which is truly conceived of, we can handle; but the misconception of what we need to know of evil,—or the conception of it at all as something real,—costs much." We cannot afford even tacitly to admit any reality in error, however seemingly small. The results are not only needless, but blameworthy, when lack of proper watchfulness has brought about undesirable consequences.
