Today we hear much of atomic power, power politics, and aggression. It is well to understand what we mean by power, and what we credit with having power. Power may be defined as the ability to act or influence, and it may be potential or expressed. Christian Science teaches that there is one power, the divine Mind, or God, and that there is no real power in material things or thoughts. The ability to act belongs to God, not to error; and God does not surrender His power, either voluntarily or involuntarily, for He is conscious only of Himself and His creation. The power of God is expressed by His ideas.
The student of Christian Science, when confronted by suggestions of evil power in the national or international field, is not afraid of destructive tendencies. In his textbooks, the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, he finds an abundance of spiritual ideas with which to counteract these suggestions. He helps the world situation by conquering his fears and beliefs in substance matter and by realizing the omnipresence of Love.
Christian Science explains Mind as good in essence, supreme in power. Furthermore, this Science reveals that there is only one Mind and that it includes all which is real and substantial. The ideas of divine Mind express the qualities of that Mind and cannot be separated from their origin. These ideas are as permanent as the Mind which conceives them. They reflect Life, eternal Love, which is unfailing; divine Truth is their strength. They are governed by Principle and have the beauty and wholeness of Soul, the substance of Spirit.
Spiritual man cannot be influenced erroneously or swayed by selfish or fearful suggestions, for God is the Mind of man. When we know these spiritual facts and consistently and consciously hold to them, we can experience the power of right ideas. An individual who clings to spiritual facts is acknowledging the divine Mind as his Mind and the Mind of all. It is inconceivable that one reflecting this Mind could lose his peace, his power to know God's pure ideas.
Throughout the history of mankind spiritual ideas have taken certain individuals out of obscurity and made them shine as beacons. The right idea of God which Christ Jesus entertained distinguished him from all other men and inaugurated the Christian era. The right idea of God has such power that it enabled Moses to overcome doubt and fear and made him a leader of his people and a great organizer. The same may be said of Mrs. Eddy. The right idea of God took this gentle woman out of a sense of weakness and lack and made her our Leader. She became the Discoverer of Christian Science and the Founder of a great religious movement.
Because of the modern attempts to influence thought, either overtly or covertly, the student of Christian Science is greatly blessed, because his religion teaches him how to distinguish between spiritual ideas and material suggestions. He has this instruction in Science and Health (p. 88:) "How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from illusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, proceeding from the brain or from matter, are offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material beliefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another are called spirits."
A Christian Scientist is not afraid of being influenced wrongly, for he does not claim intelligence as a personal possession. Knowing that intelligence is a quality of God, that it belongs to God and is expressed by man as the reflection of God, the student does not permit his intelligence to be taken from him by suggestion. He first learns to distinguish between ideas and illusions in his everyday experience. He discards images of discord and disease, however presented, lifting his thought above appearances to the truth of God and man.
The faith of a Christian Scientist rests not upon theory, but upon demonstrated understanding. As one cannot take from a mathematician his understanding of numbers, which he uses to solve problems, one cannot take from a Christian Scientist his understanding of Principle, which he puts into practice and thereby heals the sick and the sinning. It is the consciousness of Truth demonstrated which gives the Christian Scientist confidence and power to act.
John, in his Revelation, speaks of a dragon sending out floods of suggestive error in order to drown the spiritual idea. This description seems a prophetic picture of today, when more than ever mankind is being flooded with false assumptions about man and the universe. Man is pictured as a helpless victim of disease and sin and subject to destruction. Propaganda is being consciously used to influence men without regard to truth or individual dignity. The nations of the world appear to be engaged in an armament race whose destructive force exceeds imagination.
What is the defense of the Christian Scientist? The power of right ideas, which correct this picture, remove fear and uphold the grandeur of individual consciousness. The Christian Scientist knows that evil suggestions do not originate in God and cannot therefore identify themselves with divine intelligence and so borrow life and power. Further, the Christian Scientist realizes the omnipresence of intelligence and the omnipotence of Truth and thus helps to destroy the belief that these suggestions are gaining support in the world.
It is well to know that aggression and duplicity are masks for weakness and are of no advantage to the individual. We should not judge the dragon by the loudness of its voice or the crudity and cruelty of its outlook, but from the standpoint of its nothingness. Right ideas are not helpless or unheard, but are active and strong. Each student of Christian Science has important work to do today, no matter what his business or location, in order that he may help mankind to awake from false teachings and mesmeric arguments to the recognition of Truth.
It is the student's privilege and duty to know that freedom of unfoldment is man's divine right, that man cannot be enslaved. Understanding this, one gains the ability to distinguish between right ideas and erroneous suggestions—a faculty which cannot be taken from him, because it is given to him by God, divine Mind.
Mortal mind will find its methods of thought control failing as the divine ideas of love and brotherhood triumph. In the words of Elisha to his servant, Christian Scientists today confidently assure mankind (II Kings 6:16), "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." Eternal silence and impotence are the only future for lies, whereas the power of right ideas cannot be destroyed.
Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God;I know not any. . . . I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it—Isaiah 44:8, 22, 23.
