GOOD and evil have faced each other in human consciousness since the beginning of history. But it was not until the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy that these two opposites were clearly defined as Spirit and matter.
In Science we learn that Spirit is All and that matter is nothing—the truth Christ Jesus proved through his healing works and through his own resurrection and ascension. Spirit is God, divine Mind, the infinite, eternal Principle, Love. Matter is the subjective state and the object of a supposed mind other than God. The false mind is called the carnal mind, or mortal mind.
Human history has recorded many confrontations of material belief and spiritual reality. In addition to the Master, such men as Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Daniel, Paul, Peter, and John proved the superiority of spiritual power over material belief. And since Mrs. Eddy's discovery, thousands of men and women have demonstrated the reign of Principle in the healing of diseases and discords.
But today there is a challenge which was not so clear in earlier days. Along with human progress—much of which has resulted from the release of human energies and capacities through the spiritualization of thought—has come the claim that material belief can give more of the good things of life than can spiritual truth. Not only does the material sense of things claim that it has produced better washing machines and promise transportation to the moon in the near future, but it predicts that it will eliminate many diseases and substantially postpone death. As these claims become more pronounced, greater steadfastness in the truth will be demanded of Christian Scientists.
It is easy to oppose what is obviously evil; it is not easy to oppose what others think of as good. And sometimes one finds within oneself resistance to spiritual good because material beliefs seem so good and so easy to follow. The benefits apparently offered by materialistic methods are rapidly accelerating today. And their dynamically changing testimony vividly impresses human thought.
Christian Science teaches that man is the outcome of Spirit. Materialism insists that man is evolved from matter. In the past materialism offered little to the average man but hardship. Today it offers an easy life. Every healing in Christian Science proves that life and intelligence are not in matter but in Mind. No healing could take place by declaring Mind's allness and matter's nothingness if these declarations were not true. But human belief is becoming more and more impressed by materialistic progress and finds it easier to accept the theory that life and intelligence are in matter rather than in Mind.
Mrs. Eddy foresaw this and wrote in "Unity of Good" a colloquy between good and evil. At one point in this colloquy, good says (p. 24): "All consciousness is Mind; and Mind Is God,—an infinite, and not a finite consciousness. This consciousness is reflected in individual consciousness, or man, whose source is infinite Mind." A few lines later, evil replies: "I am something separate from good or God. I am substance. My mind is more than matter. In my mortal mind, matter becomes conscious, and is able to see, taste, hear, feel, smell. Whatever matter thus affirms is mainly correct. If you, O good, deny this, then I deny your truthfulness."
This is the challenge of today. To meet it, we must examine our own thoughts, our motives, our love for Christ, Truth. The world is being propagandized by material belief as never before,
In the battle between Spirit and matter, we must ask ourselves which side we are on. But more, we must know why. Have we taken the side of Spirit because it promises an easier life, or have we taken that side because it is the side of Truth? If we see ourselves as ideas of Spirit, we know that we have no real existence, no Life, but Spirit. There actually is no choice.
The confrontation of Spirit and matter appears on earth as the struggle between Church and that which resists Church. Material goodness, so called, rests upon and proceeds from belief in matter. Its promises are great. Its enticements are alluring. "Church," according to Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 533), is, "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle."
As we understand the reality of Spirit and the nothingness of matter, we can resist the temptation to relax in matter, and we can take up the cross of Truth. Only as we do this can the world find Truth. And we know that the world has little time to find it.
The Church of Christ, Scientist, represents spiritual reality on earth. In the consciousness of each individual Christian Scientist today, there is a confrontation not only of Truth and error, but of the church member and the mortal. The church member lives to awaken mankind. Since he is in reality the image of Love, his life as a Scientist is found in his devotion to Church. The mortal, on the other hand, lives only to die, eventually, and seeks all the ease he can find before his life ends. He regards Church in materially personal terms, finds it convenient, soothing, even healing, but he must awake to God as his Life if he is to know life in Christ, Truth.
In the twelfth chapter of Revelation, John depicts the warfare that takes place in human consciousness when Michael and his angels, thoughts emanating from Principle, war against the dragon and his angels, material beliefs. John writes of a heavenly voice announcing victory for "the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ." False belief, "the accuser," is cast out. And the Revelator explains, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb."
