TODAY the attention of the news media is largely taken up with the consideration of world affairs. While these may be objectively reported, the summations are made merely from knowledge of mankind's history, coupled with good human reasoning. The aim of the student of Christian Science, however, is not to arrive at human conclusions about world conditions but to understand scientifically the facts underlying them.
Paul's words are a veritable exhortation to us when he writes (I Cor. 3:16), "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Because the Christ, the spirit of God, dwells in us, we can cease viewing world events from the standpoint of material sense testimony.
In any situation—whether in sickness, in business, in church, or in our human relationships—we are confronted with what the world, mortal mind, as Christian Science designates it, believes. In world events too we are faced with mortal mind's belief, which attempts to use many individuals, yes, thousands of them, for its purposes. Our work is first to meet and master in our own thought the world belief of evil.
Of course, anyone's sense of evil is not the totality of evil; but the battle against it takes place in individual human consciousness. Evil is not a place, a person, or a group of persons, but a false belief. The vital question is, "How real is evil to you?" Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells us (Unity of Good, p. 8): "Everything is as real as you make it, and no more so. What you see, hear, feel, is a mode of consciousness, and can have no other reality than the sense you entertain of it."
A sense of our oneness with the infinite God as His idea endues us with unlimited power from on high. For man, being the complete representative of infinite Mind, God, must reflect His power and control and express the dynamic thoughts emanating from Deity Himself.
The spirit of God illumines our consciousness with the conviction of the power of right thought, the might of the spirit of Truth exercised over mortal mind, or world belief, to destroy it. In strong words our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, assures us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 162), "A small group of wise thinkers is better than a wilderness of dullards and stronger than the might of empires."
Today the entire world is concerned with the havoc that might ensue if nuclear power were unleashed. But Christian Scientists should not be influenced by evil reports in the press or in other news media, but be guided in their thinking by the Bible and our Leader's writings. These books assure and reassure us of the omnipotence of God, good, and of the certain annihilation of everything opposed to His rule.
One palpable error of practice is to start with evil, admitting what it seems to be doing, and trying to figure out what it might do. Evil is not in reality doing anything. The spirit of God reveals that all activity emanates from Truth. This activity is bringing evil to the surface of human consciousness where its nothingness may be seen. Animal magnetism, or evil mind, in its seeming activity is fighting to maintain its apparent existence. But we know it is unreal and that the only effect of its activity is eventually to destroy itself.
The question may occur, "What is going to happen to humanity if leaders of nations, through some chance decision, loose the terrible weapons they possess?" This phase of evil suggestion is not new. Narrowed down, it is seen to be the age-old admission that God has forsaken or will forsake His people.
Paul wonderfully handles that argument in these words: "I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. . . . God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew" (Rom. 11:1, 2). God is God now. Divine Love still animates its entire creation. Principle reigns in the heart of man, and intelligent Mind continues to govern all. Therefore we, reflecting the one divine consciousness, need have no fear of possible eventualities, for we know that the unopposable unfoldment of Life, Truth, and Love is all that is going on or can take place. God governs the universe, including man. Therefore no one is outside His control. To the degree that we perceive and abide by these facts, we shall be at peace.
Again mortal mind might suggest, "Can the just leaders of government cope with the error using the heads of other nations?" Mortal mind is always looking to and depending upon persons. Here we may apply the story of Gideon and obtain our answer. The Scriptures record that after his victories, "the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you" (Judg. 8:22,23).
Are we not justified in concluding from this passage that chief executives and their assistants will not rule over us? The spirit of God tells us that we are not in their hands, subject to their decisions, but that they are in God's hands, subject to His wise decisions. In spite of all evidence to the contrary, the one, unerring Mind rules and makes every decision! Of course, this must be demonstrated.
Another fallacy to which Science awakens us is the false belief that we are material, living in a material universe consisting of diverse nations and races. God is universal; so He is the God of all nations and peoples, whether they know it or not and whether they believe it or not.
Although mortal mind claims that the world is divided into discordant nations seething with conflicts, there is but one kingdom, in which God, good, reigns supreme and is the only power. The one spiritual universe, God's, is forever harmonious, where all of His children dwell together in concord under the government of divine Love.
We must not start with material sense, which testifies to both peace-loving and warlike nations, nor should we attempt to unite unmixables. We should begin only with the one Mind, shining through all and alone influencing all. The battle is not against countries but against the beliefs of the anti-Christ attempting to handle countries. The foe is animal magnetism, evil, claiming to act as dense materialism. Evil seems to operate by and as deception. It claims to have deceived the whole world, but it alone is deceived. It tells and believes its lies; but it can harm only itself, because it believes them.
Although the world seems to be forcing its problems upon us, we must remember that the spirit of God is our guide. Unimportant personal affairs, as well as animal magnetism's attempts to foment discordant relationships, petty church misunderstandings, and so forth, must not be allowed to encroach upon our thought or divert it from consistent mental work for ourselves and the greater tasks that lie ahead. Our own spiritual progress is most important. Only as we progress spiritually shall we be in a mental position to contribute to the defeat of the materialism that is attempting to engulf the world.
In consistent mental work for ourselves, in periods of study and spiritual refreshment, our thought will be renewed and refreshed with the truth of what God is and what He does for man. We can dwell on the wonderful synonyms for God which our beloved Leader has given us, see our true selfhood as the eternal, harmonious idea of infinite divine Love, and handle until they are unreal to us the suggestions of evil that are vainly attempting to intrude upon our thought. Working thus, we shall find the spirit of God animating us, and we shall enter the sanctuary of Spirit. There we shall see as unreal the phases of evil attempting not only to handle us individually but also to influence the whole world.
In the Bible and in our Leader's writings there are no prophecies about the end of Truth or the end of the reign of righteousness. But there is the reiteration of the fact that "of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:33). Our Leader writes emphatically (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 565), "The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master; but 'of his kingdom there shall be no end,' for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples—imperatively, absolutely, finally— with divine Science."
Jesus saw and foretold that the world would seem to be engulfed with materialism. His comforting words for all mankind are these (Luke 21:25-28): "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; . . . men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
Like our Master, we can refuse to believe as real what God does not create and maintain. We know that what God does not behold is not actually present. And we know too that if God cannot see it, we, made in His image, cannot see it either. Consequently, we can face the storm of evil suggestions on the world scene fearlessly, striving to see and accept only what is Godlike—what God has made. This true discernment of good denotes the activity of the spirit of God, and it will be inevitably and constructively evidenced in world affairs.
