Not only in national or world affairs is it necessary vigorously and persistently to be assured that victory must be and always will be, in the long view, on the side of right. That same confident and courageous mental attitude must be maintained by the Christian Science warrior through all his own human experience, if that experience is to be kept out of darkness and in the light.
Christian Science teaches that there is but one Mind, the divine Mind; but one power, that is, good. To lack of realization and demonstration of that fact may be laid all the apparent woes of mankind.
Belief that there is another mind than the one divine Mind carries with it the assumption that evil possesses intelligence and power. And one of the many claims of this supposititious mind is that it can cause failure and reverse good, in both individual and world affairs. Thus it would sometimes try to swamp a Christian Scientist with the overwhelming conviction that some important undertaking, or even his whole life, had been a failure. Shall we let error do this to us?
There is one sure way to overcome this vicious claim and the sadness and discouragement which go with it, one certain method by which evil can be defeated, and that is by turning the apparent failure into a spiritual success; by growing further Godward, by rising above what seems humanly a hard experience, so that the end will be spiritual growth, a better understanding of God achieved, more eternity and infinity realized.
Self-condemnation must be seen as false and weakening; self-pity as selfish and egotistical. Regret over misfortune which seemed unavoidable and was unintentional is waste of time. Yearning for the seemingly desirable but unattainable is equally unprofitable. These temptations must be met by the realization that the only real selfhood is God's reflection, deserving no condemnation because always Godlike, capable of no self-pity because always one with joyous good, realizing no human history apart from God, feeling no lack of love and supply, of opportunity and happiness.
Thus correcting his thought, the Christian Scientist finds that strong, true courage comes into his consciousness. With eyes to the front, with his hand in God's hand, he marches forward in obedience to the teaching of his textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, knowing that good—ever present, eternal, fadeless—is his, and that evil, no matter what phase it may assume, is always an unreal dream.
Because all is Spirit, Mind, and its reflection, the only success or growth or progress must be spiritual. And if, out of whatever calamity evil may devise, the Christian Scientist comes forth with more certain knowledge of God, greater confidence and dominion, more demonstrated ability to perceive Spirit, then the experience has been a victory for Truth, not a failure. Then he can truly say in the words of the Bible, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty."
Human circumstances, the eventualities of war, the accidents of misfortune, may appear to be outside our thinking and outside our control. But anyone would agree that our acceptance or refusal of them and the way we let them affect us mentally are within our control.
That was true of Jesus. Others had been crucified; he alone refused to accept crucifixion as able to destroy life. Millions had gone through the belief of death; he proved that, although he went through it for the purpose of proving its unreality, he could and did reverse its claims quickly, that his friends might consciously share in the victory and the courage it gave them. Jesus proved that death is not a reality, but an illusive experience of the human mind. It cannot involve man, the idea of God. It cannot touch or darken the real man, who is one with divine Life throughout eternity.
Disease, war, mistakes, dishonesty, and sin in any form are unreal. Out of the suffering, the darkness, the individual concerned can find the ever-present Christ, Truth, wherein there is no darkness; and the suffering is forever left behind. Christian Scientists understand clearly that God, who is Mind, Love, Spirit, knows and sends no evil or suffering, no penalty to His child. As mortals get a wrong answer if they add a column of figures wrongly, so sickness, poverty, sin, disappointment, result from thinking evilly, materially, ignorantly. Thinking based on an incorrect concept of God and the belief that man is corporeal, born into matter and dying out of it, may result in almost any phase of inharmony. The penalty is included in the wrong thinking. And the result of right thinking, based on a true understanding of God, is harmony and progress.
Thinking based on a sense of human goodness is not enough; it must eventually give place to spirituality. Humanly good men have been ill, deformed, deprived, and despairing through all history, even as Job was. The only thinking which will eventually lead to victory over all evil is that which is based on the eternal, infinite perfection of Spirit, God, and the everlasting, changeless perfection of man as God's expression.
How much of the time are we, as students of Christian Science, really conscious of the nothingness of matter and the allness of Spirit? How continuously are we absent from a material sense of things and absorbed in the spiritual sense of being? On page 369 of Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy writes, "In proportion as matter loses to human sense all entity as man, in that proportion does man become its master." And on page 261 she says, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." Thus we must constantly increase our purely spiritual thinking. In order to do so we must protect ourselves from false and evil thoughts. The world is talking of defense work these days, but true defense work is nothing new to the Christian Scientist. If alert, obedient, and loyal to this teaching, he is always engaged in spiritually mental defense.
The alert student wisely, with inspiration and positiveness. obeys each day our Leader's injunction in Section 6 of Article VIII of the Manual of The Mother Church: "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged,—and justified or condemned." His thoughts do not dwell on error, but on God. And he works positively to see the unreality of whatever particular type of evil may at the time seem to be menacing his peace, his health, or that of his family and the world.
Whatever the phase of error that may seem to be present, it exists only as a belief in mortal mind. Evil is correctly and scientifically handled when its nothingness is realized.
One needs to know his true selfhood as a divine idea, safe in divine Mind, where material sense can never find him. He needs to know himself as the child of God, therefore perfect, surrounded by divine Love and one with it, expressing activity, intelligence, joyousness, freedom, health, and spirituality. Knowing these absolute facts he will be protected, rightly guided, realizing abundance and healing ability in human affairs.
The student knows that no hate can reach him, because in the truth of being there is none. He knows the unreality of envy, jealousy, rivalry. He knows that in reality there is no malpractice and no malpractitioner; that Love is ever present and expressed in spiritual thinking. He realizes that no aggressive mental suggestion of illness, loneliness, tiredness, sin, poverty, despondency, or apprehension—whatever it be that may seem to assail him—is known to Mind or Mind's reflection.
He realizes the perfection of man as Mind's idea, safe eternally, well everlastingly, provided for infinitely, living forever. He knows that because Principle is All and good, man is spiritual, the expression of Principle, and that there is no evil in Mind or Mind's idea. He knows that spiritual man dwells in eternal Life. Thinking along those lines constitutes protection for him.
That these absolute facts about man are not immediately clear to us, and that as students we are not able to overcome at once the entire belief in matter, are no reason for discouragement. Let us be glad that we have started on the journey out of sense into Soul, out of illusion and delusion into spiritual reality. Let us, whether practitioner or young student of Christian Science, rejoice over every proof, however small, of a growing sense of dominion over error, an increasing realization of our oneness with good. With practice, consecration, and spiritual growth, dominion will be demonstrated. And as it may seem to come to us only by degrees, only by overcoming, only by increased understanding, let us insist that everything that pushes us on toward God is a victory, however much we may have suffered in the process of growth.
The suffering is not the victory. The seeming failure is not commendable. The trial is not sent or known of Principle, but the overcoming of these errors through realizing their nothingness and the allness of God, good—that is victory, that is triumph, which leads thought on to God.
No healing is needed for man, the idea of Mind. That spiritual fact is what makes possible the healing of sickness. The real man is always the representation of God. That basic fact makes possible, here and now, the healing of mankind's sinfulness.
Through the practical improving of human living, through overcoming evil, through purifying thought, through spiritualizing our concepts, through living the truth, we shall ascend in understanding until our actual, indestructible identity or real selfhood appears in all its glory. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." Only in human experience do these triumphs and victories take place. In the absolute truth of being there is nothing to overcome. Calm, omnipotent good, is the changeless fact of eternity.
