On the cover page of the Christian Science Sentinel, below the title, are the significant words of the master Metaphysician, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." They are significant because alertness is fundamental in applying the teachings of Christ Jesus, teachings which are elucidated in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. She states (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 239): "The watchword of Christian Science is Scriptural: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.'"
We have learned by study and often by compelling experience that all evil must be decisively rejected as untrue, not merely ignored. But before it can be rejected evil must first be recognized as such. How can this be done? Only through the exercise of spiritual sense, that capacity and ability derived from divine Mind, Soul, to understand what is spiritually real. This ability should be cultivated, for the fuller our understanding, the clearer is the line of separation between good and evil and the easier it becomes to detect quickly even the subtler phases of evil. The clearer spiritual ideas are to us, the better we are equipped to detect and reject all that purports to be opposite to Truth, Spirit. Unless we see through the deceit and unreality which characterize evil and also destroy, through spiritual understanding, its claims to influence and activity, we are taken in by it. Mrs. Eddy points out (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 64): "It is scientific to abide in conscious harmony, in health-giving, deathless Truth and Love. To do this, mortals must first open their eyes to all the illusive forms, methods, and subtlety of error, in order that the illusion, error, may be destroyed; if this is not done, mortals will become the victims of error."
The writer remembers a testimony given at a Wednesday evening meeting, which brought home to him the practical value of alertness. The speaker told of the healing of an infected finger through Christian Science treatment, but the symptoms were described vividly and minutely. Subsequently the writer experienced a similar painful condition. As he gave himself a Christian Science treatment, it suddenly was uncovered to him that when hearing this testimony he had not been spiritually alert; that is, he had allowed the picture of the physical condition and its symptoms, instead of the spiritual fact, to abide in his thought. He handled his own case mainly on the basis that man cannot in reality be influenced by the erroneous thoughts of mortals, but is governed wholly by God's ideas, pure and perfect. The healing came quickly.
