Who of us has not at times been tempted to be disturbed at the aggressive persistence of the carnal, or mortal, mind, attempting through propaganda media, such as radio, television, and newspapers, to make evil seem natural and even good? Perhaps after a time we tend to become indifferent, thinking there is nothing much we can do about medical commercials, sensational news reports, and the like. Or perhaps we just try to tune them out, so to speak, thinking that if we ignore them we won't be affected by them.
In Christian Science we learn that we cannot effectively reject aggressiveness by ignoring it. Jesus, our perfect example of active Christianity, did not ignore error. He met it right where it presented itself to his thought, and he gained mastery over it with the truth he knew, the great truth of spiritual being.
Christ Jesus knew that the perfect creator, who is Spirit, must make a perfect spiritual creation and must include in this creation a perfect spiritual man, made, according to the first chapter of Genesis, in His own image and likeness. Enunciating his understanding of true cause and effect, Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."Matt. 5:48; He must have known that the material senses have no concept of spiritual man and that, in their ignorance of reality, they continually pour forth a false concept of man as mortal and material, living in a material environment and dependent on matter for life, health, and happiness.
Jesus proved that the material senses are liars and that the material sense of being is their lie. He demonstrated that the real man, Mind's reflection, is dependent only on the communications of Mind for the truth and harmony of his being. This is the basic fact that Christian Science reveals and enables its adherents to prove. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration."Science and Health, p. 259;
The conflicting theories of creation—one presented by the material senses and the other presented by spiritual sense—seem to meet and struggle in human consciousness. This is entirely a mental conflict, and the revelation of divine Science must ultimately resolve it and prove man's eternal likeness to Spirit.
Through the ages error has used various methods in its attempt to hold human consciousness in bondage to the belief in evil. Pagan practices and idolatry tempted the children of Israel. Those spiritually enlightened servants of the one true God, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and many others, labored tirelessly to awaken them to the evil of their doings and to keep them in the right path. In our age, partly because of the swiftness of communication and transportation, evil seems to have attained much larger proportions and more subtle means for circulating its propaganda. It claims to appropriate every advanced invention for this purpose.
How grateful we can feel that we do not have to be helpless victims of materiality's suggestions! Mrs. Eddy has shown us in Christian Science how we may stem the tide of aggression against our thought and defend ourselves against it. Evil has only one way of operating, and that is through suggestion. The Christ, God's true idea active in human consciousness, is our defense against it.
Instead of bristling at error's attempts to manipulate our thinking through provocative or alarming advertisements and newscasts, should we not be alert to see that the very thing error would have us do is to give it enough reality and power to agitate and harm us? Would it not be more purposeful for us to ask, "Just what is going on here?"
Christian Science teaches us that only good has real activity and that the only power of evil is to annihilate itself. The evil that is trying to get our attention is actually unreal, a Babel going through a process of complete self-destruction. The definition of "Babel" given by Mrs. Eddy reads:
"Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge.
"The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evidence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall of its structure."p. 581;
After establishing in our thought the certainty of error's self-destructive unreality, we might well ask ourselves, "What is Christian Science doing?" Christian Science is bringing to light the perfection of man, who lives in the divine Mind, where error is unknown. It is restoring primitive Christianity by comforting the sorrowing, cleansing the sinner, healing the sick. It is doing what Jesus said his true followers would do.
In Christian Science we find the effective answer to aggressive, fallacious propaganda so constantly being broadcast and published. We can contradict falsity. We can know both for ourselves and the world that it has no power to press its suggestions on consciousness and that there is no mind to respond to them, for God is the only Mind. Replacing the mesmeric suggestions with spiritual truths, we can be sure we are doing our part in nullifying the claims of evil.
Are news columns and broadcasts tempting us to believe that certain forms of government have great power to influence erroneously the minds of men and that they may be able to impose their systems on all mankind? Why should we tremble before godless materialism? The denial of God's government of man holds within itself the seed of its own self-destruction. We may know that any form of rule that robs the individual of his privilege of enlightened self-government is without cause or Principle and is even now in the process of self-annihilation.
Again we might ask, "What is Christian Science doing?" It is revealing men's inherent right so to govern themselves under God's direction as to cast off all forms of bondage. It is freeing their minds from self-imposed material beliefs.
When suggestion aggressively argues through advertising that certain forms of sensual indulgence bring satisfaction, we can counteract this lie with the realization that only the truth of one's actual being, spiritual and perfect in God's image, can satisfy the longings of the human heart. The individual who knows the fulfillment Soul confers does not turn to the false stimulants mortal sense offers.
Mrs. Eddy writes, "The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front."p. 102; Christian Scientists know that the more assertively error exposes itself, the more its nothingness is coming to light and the more nearly it is approaching its doom.
The Apostle Paul wrote to his beloved Timothy, "Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called."I Tim. 6:20.
Mankind are not helpless before the aggression of evil. They can reject error and acknowledge the scientific thoughts which go forth from divine Mind. These nullify the falsities attempting to tyrannize the minds of men. Man, God's likeness, reflects God's infinite dominion. Therefore we can stand unmoved until Truth finally reveals spiritual creation as the only reality. Let us acknowledge the ever-present ideas of divine Mind revealed through study of Christian Science and hasten this ultimate day.
