The word "ambush" is derived from boscus, a wood, where certainly there is ample opportunity to waylay and launch a surprise attack upon an unwary and unwatchful adversary. An army advancing over difficult country will naturally take the precaution of sending forward patrols to discover and warn the main force of lurking dangers and, so far as possible, clear the way. Failure to take this step may involve disaster.
Late in the nineteenth century, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, presented the world with a radical exposition of the nature of evil, namely, its nothingness. But while Christian Science consistently teaches and demonstrates the unreality of evil, it certainly does not teach that evil's claim to reality is to be ignored. Throughout the writings of Mrs. Eddy may be found strong demands to overcome evil and prove its unreality, in the light of the allness of God, good. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 126), "Christian Scientists have a strong race to run, and foes in ambush." She adds, "But bear in mind that, in the long race, honesty always defeats dishonesty."
Nobody would dispute the fact that evil seems, to the material senses, to be real and to have power, as witness the condition of the world today; but, through the understanding which Christian Science gives, this seeming power can be proved, here and now, to be the negative of all that is real and true. Claiming to have intelligence and power, evil seeks to overthrow good, the good which should be nowhere more manifest than it is in the lives of Christian Scientists and in the churches of our movement, which are destined to have a large part in establishing the kingdom of God, the reign of harmony, on earth. Mrs. Eddy has told us(Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 144, 145), "The Church, more than any other institution, at present is the cement of society, and it should be the bulwark of civil and religious liberty."
