SINCE our branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, and our church activities represent the aggregate of individual thinking, that which affects or influences the individual church member affects or influences his branch church. Thus, demonstration of a full and harmonious membership, of abundant supply, and of well-attended and fruitful lectures comes through the spiritualization of consciousness of each individual member.
But too often, when discordant conditions arise, one forgets that he experiences the false only when he accepts it as true, and he tends to focus blame on some person or circumstance outside himself, overlooking the fact that no person or circumstance, no mortal law—in fact, no evil in any form —can touch the one who keeps active guard over his thoughts. Allowing himself to entertain false suggestions instead of rejecting them, he identifies himself and his fellow members as mortals instead of God's ideas, and he is apt to find himself and his concept of church fulfilling what error would have him believe.
The ability to think rightly is a God given power, and nothing can deprive us of this heritage. Because God is the only Mind, the only Mind of man, there is no other mind to influence or control. Acknowledging and realizing this spiritual fact enables us to protect ourselves and our church from the aggressive mental suggestions that would try to find response in us.
On pages 234 and 235 of the textbook, Science and Health, our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes: "Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence."
What is this evil against which we must defend ourselves? Whatever would limit or dethrone the activity of the Christ. Our Master, Christ Jesus, referred to it as devil, Satan, "the prince of this world" (John 14:30). Our Leader frequently calls it animal magnetism. It is that which would try to manipulate human consciousness and have us accept as our own thinking the suggestion that Christian Science cannot fulfill its purpose or mission for mankind. It would try to make us believe that this Science cannot heal, that its churches can be impoverished or depleted, that its periodicals and lectures cannot rouse mankind from contemplation of the material into spiritualization of thought.
Throughout her writings Mrs. Eddy cautions against the subtle intrusion of aggressive mental suggestion and instructs her followers how to defend themselves daily against this evil, reassuring them with frequent reminders of the protecting power of Love. But unless we are obedient and alert to utilize this ever-present protective power, we may find manifested in individual experience, and in our church, the discords and inharmonies error would have us accept as real.
In the Bible can be found many references to this form of error, such as serpent, adversary, "spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12). The prophet Ezekiel speaks of it as the sword and the pestilence and warns (7:15), "The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within."
Spiritually considered, would not the sword without be the enmity of the warring carnal mind aimed at the Christ, Truth, which Christian Science proclaims? Would it not be the opposition, the resistance, the anti-Christ, the deliberate attempts to undermine the spiritual structure which the Church of Christ, Scientist, represents?
If we allow these suggestions to invade our thinking and accept them instead of destroying them, they could prevent our sowing or cultivating the seed of Truth, as war prevented the Israelites from cultivating their fields. How? Perhaps we would be apathetic about inviting our friends and neighbors to our church services and lectures. Perhaps we would hesitate to offer the textbook and our periodicals to someone who might be ready for them.
Are we reluctant to identify ourselves as Christian Scientists? Christ Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). Let us elevate the Christ in our consciousness— lift thought above worldliness and material thinking—and earnestly strive to practice what we profess, thus letting our light so shine that all men will be drawn to the Christ, Truth, which our church represents.
But if we allow ourselves to become apathetic and to believe that once we have sown the seed we have done all we need to do and make no further effort to cultivate where the seed of Truth has been sown, the enemy could reap where we have planted. We would have no harvest, and famine would follow, a famine of workers, members, supply. But if we remember that "the sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within"—within only if we permit them to enter—we can refute the attempts of animal magnetism and prove them powerless, and much fruitage will follow.
It is up to each church member, to everyone who calls himself a Christian Scientist, to know that, scientifically speaking, there is no "without" from which the sword of error can strike, for there is nothing besides illimitable divine Love. Man dwells in the embrace of infinite God, good, and in this infinite, eternal presence of Love there is no anger, no hatred, no evil. With the understanding of the one Mind governing and of man divinely governed as perfect idea or expression, there can appear no mental malpractitioner and consequently no mental malpractice.
In Miscellany, our Leader tells us (p. 210): "Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited."
Paul refers to this impervious armor in his Epistle to the Ephesians. He says (6: 11), "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." And he defines what we are to stand against, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." And he adds, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God." He gives explicit instructions how to do this: "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
In the Glossary of our textbook "sword" is defined as: "The idea of Truth; justice. Revenge; anger" (p. 595) . Let us resist the sword that is without—the revenge, the anger, the hatred—and follow Paul's admonition to take "the sword of the Spirit" —"the idea of Truth"—and protect ourselves, our church, and our Cause from the famine and pestilence that would manifest themselves within. Then when animal magnetism tries to find response in our consciousness we can stand firm and say as did the Master, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."
