Jesus, the human messenger of Christ, Truth, "in all points tempted like as we are" (Hebr. 4:15), was always found at his post of duty, lovingly obedient to the mandates of Mind, God, and daily demonstrating his conscious awareness of Mind's presence and power. His is an unparalleled example of spiritual alertness. It was therefore perfectly natural that he should issue a warning to all who valued their freedom and security, "for," as he prophetically explained to them, "false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mark 13:22). But he did not stop with the warning. He also shared with his followers his God-given method for protecting himself from Truth's would-be enemies. In the mighty word "watch" he gave a dynamic rule for men's safety and freedom. His entire pronouncement, as given in Mark (13:37), reads as follows: "And what I say unto you I say unto all. Watch."
Today as we stand at our posts of duty, we are constantly challenged by the enemies of freedom, those aggressive persuasions of untruth—fear, ignorance, sin, and apathy —and, as in Jesus' time, the need to be wide-awake and vigilant is imperative. Equally urgent is a practical knowledge of the most effective means of detecting and engaging the enemy, whenever and in whatever form it appears.
At this moment the recognized agents of materialism are claiming to operate full time on every highway of human thought. With pseudo innocence and sweetness they first entreat, promise, persuade, and finally demand that we take down the bars of virtue and truth, throw aside the faith of our fathers, and follow them into the nebulous Utopia of material sense. This evil aggressiveness, this deceptive appeal to the lower senses of mankind, has been identified by Mary Baker Eddy as animal magnetism. Here is what she writes on this subject in her inspired work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 102): "The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front." And she explains a few lines farther on, "So secret are the present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on the subject which the criminal desires."
