There is an ancient fable which carries an important message. It goes something like this: Once upon a time on a cold, windy night a camel looked into the tent of his master and asked if he might be allowed to put his head into the tent to get warm. The master agreed. A little while later the camel asked if he could warm his neck also. And the master let the camel put his neck in. For a time the camel was contented. Then he asked if he might put his forelegs inside. Again his master consented. Very soon, the camel suggested that he come wholly inside; and when this was accomplished, he pushed his master out.
So evil of various names and natures would try to get into our "tents," our consciousness. A little fear, a little pain, a little discouragement, a little weariness, a little doubt—these are wedges of intrusion. But these intruders have no more right to be in our consciousness than the camel had to be in the tent of his master. Camels do not belong in tents. Nor does evil belong in man. Yet sometimes we are tempted to believe in evil's claims to presence and power; and, as the temptation becomes more and more insistent, we find ourselves in somewhat the same position as the master of the camel: we open our thought to the temptation and let it in; we accept its innuendos, its appeals to material sense testimony, its demands for recognition; and, almost before we realize it, the whole camel is in our tent!
"Stand porter at the door of thought," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health. And farther on, she explains: "When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them." Science and Health, p. 392;
How can we exclude "unhealthy thoughts" from consciousness? The world of communication seems to be continuously and persistently employed in the endless repetition of the presence and power of unhealthy situations and of the enormity of their effects. How can we "stand porter at the door of thought" and exclude all this?
A number of ways stand out as important to such portering:
First, we should listen to God's Word, God's voice. A beautiful poem of Mrs. Eddy's reads,
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray.Poems, p. 14;
And what does God's voice tell us? Christian Science reveals that the divine voice tells us that there are not minds many or gods many. There is one Mind only, one God, one great and only cause, one power guiding, guarding, and governing man and the universe. It tells us that evil, because it is godless, is mindless, powerless; it has no control over man and the universe, for "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Rev. 19:6; And it tells us that God is good, wholly good. To believe that God is both good and evil or that God is the creator of both good and evil is a repudiation of Scripture. "The Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations," Ps. 100:5; the Psalmist assured us.
Secondly, we should accept the present applicability of God's Word. "Fear thou not," God says, "for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isa. 41:10;
Thirdly, we should gratefully acknowledge man as God's workmanship, His image and likeness.
And lastly, we should deny evil the slightest place in our consciousness, knowing that to give it presence and power is a form of idolatry—believing in another power, in a god other than God.
But we may think that evil seems very real. So does the sun's rising and setting seem very real, but we know that the sun in all its history has never really risen or set. The rotation of the earth makes the sun appear to rise and set. Although none of us has ever seen or consciously felt the earth rotate, we know that it does. Hence we see that we cannot depend upon material sense evidence.
Christian Science explains that evil is not real; it has no power, for God is all power. God would have to share His power with evil if evil is to have power. This is unthinkable, impossible. The omnipotent could not and would not share His power with anyone or anything.
Evil, and this includes disease, is not an entity. Nor is it a part of man. It is but a false claim boasting an entity or an identity. Like the serpent in the allegory of Adam and Eve, it claims to know more than God. But man is neither its victim nor its audience. Man is the image, the expression, of God, of divine Mind, of infinite, ever-present good, of ever-operative Principle, of all-encompassing Love. He is not the image, or expression, of evil, nor is he receptive to it.
Man has dominion over all the earth— dominion given him by God. Nothing can deprive or dispossess him of this dominion. An understanding of man's dominion enables one to be a good porter at the door of his thinking, to rule out evil and all its fantastic pretensions and demands. He can stand undismayed at evil's appeals or threats. He can be a worthy disciple of Christ Jesus and follow his teachings of God's healing love and law. In his daily affairs he can express wisdom, love, strength, courage, and real dominion. Trusting God, he will not need to go from problem to problem searching for a way, but from glory to glory, gratefully acknowledging God's ever-present, ever-available, ever-potent guidance, protection, and love. No more need he tremble at or believe in the suggestion that he is a mortal, subject to all the indignities and sorrows and failures of a man made from dust. He knows that he is the beloved son of God and that now and forever this is true. With "Hail, son of God," he can daily greet himself and his neighbor, confidently, triumphantly.
But is such recognition of man possible or practicable? Yes, it is. Does it mean closing one's eyes to evil or ignoring it, living in an ivory tower apart from the paths of human experience and need? No. The Saviour did not live in an ivory tower, ignoring human need; he walked the highways and byways of old Judea and Galilee and met human need wherever and whatever the need was. Never was there a more practical recognition of man as God's son than his. And he commanded all who believed in him to do the same. Not only did he command them to do so, but he assured them that they could do so.
And we can. Our God is ever present, ever available, all-powerful, the same God of whom Christ Jesus preached and whose law he so gloriously demonstrated in the healing of sin, disease, and death. Our prayer, our privilege, is to listen to God's Word and to live according to it, to stand porter at the door of our thought that no evil may enter in to deprive us of our heritage as the sons and daughters of God—our heritage of unlimited good.
In a wonderful message to Christian Scientists half a century ago, Mrs. Eddy gives the perfect explanation of what standing porter at the door of consciousness means. She says: "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness. 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." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210.
