Almost everyone holds some kind of guard over what he considers his world. The question is, How effective is that guard? And how healing is it? Is it a series of small wars—an attempt to overcome evil as a reality? Are we believing that there are two forces at work, one good and one evil, both equally valid? Or is our guard a holding to spiritual dominion, which bears witness to God's allness, His omnipresence, and His manifestation?
At Gethsemane Christ Jesus patiently chided his disciples for sleeping: "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" Matt. 26:40; Mrs. Eddy comments, "Could they not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voiceless agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?" Science and Health, p. 48;
Today, we may still ask ourselves how we can watch and hold effective, uncomplaining guard over the changing world we see around us and hear about constantly. We can open our eyes and ears by exercising our spiritual faculties and letting the realities of God, man, and the universe flood in on us from the divine source, divine Mind. Then we begin to see the practical fact that the new heaven and new earth of John's apocalyptic vision is at hand, to be recognized, acknowledged, and progressively demonstrated. We gather the facts of being from Soul just as the Master did. We confront the testimony of sense with evidence gathered from Spirit.
In our desire to follow the Master we may become apprehensive when we remember that he went through the crucifixion before his resurrection and ascension. Christian Science teaches that the fear of suffering starts out from a basic error, rather than from the divine Principle of the universe. It starts from the material concept of man and the universe, and from ignorance of God. Jesus has given us instruction on how to bypass this faulty premise.
The cross, after all, is made to fit the form of a mortal. Personal sense is both the sufferer and the basic suffering. The demand on us is to accept the Science of being and identify with the spiritual intelligence of the universe that is totally unconscious of anything to oppose itself. This enables us to confront the claims of error on the basis of their unreality—to confront them and dispel their testimony— not to fight them or run from them as fearsome realities. We give up the suffering so far as we accept the Science.
I once took a three-month leave of absence from my church soloist position. As I prepared to return, a deep chest cold developed. In spite of the good prayerful work done by a Christian Science practitioner and me, the condition grew worse.
After a period of study I could see that the Christ bears witness to itself. There is nothing to bear witness to Truth in the personal sense of existence. My need was to identify myself with the spiritual idea of God, and to give up any feeling of being a mortal person standing for Truth. Truth stands for itself. Almost instantly the symptoms disappeared, and I was free.
Why is it better to hold spiritually scientific guard over the world than a warring, complaining guard?
To the complaining thought, evil is entertained as a reality. Complaining consciousness does not heal. It may wish to do away with unpleasant and wrong conditions, but by accepting them as substantial and real it identifies with the problem and thus holds on to it. This lets the problem perpetuate itself, giving the error its only power. If the guardian's thought is not one of dominion over the problem, how can he expect to have the necessary spiritual light for freeing another or the world? Christian Science teaches that it is mental quackery to accept the belief in the reality of error and then attempt to heal it through metaphysical treatment.
Spiritual uncomplaining guard is a healing guard. It is spiritual alertness that discriminates between the real and the unreal as they are understood in Science. It holds to the spiritual facts of being until these facts are seen as the only evidence.
The basic complaint is the suggestion that there is a finite, personal mind other than the one infinite, divine Mind, the infinite I AM. The personal concept does not see beyond its self-made limitations. It cannot see perfection. It appears to objectify itself in many forms, but whatever the form, complex or simple, it is always one complaint: negative mind presenting its own dream and dream pictures, mourning over them, perpetuating them.
The guard we must hold uncomplainingly, then, involves maintaining alertness to the source and effects of influences on one's experience, and not being fooled by the sinuous logic of mere intellectualism. It is the reasoning of the finite mind yielding to the appearing of the divine consistency of Science. In present human experience this means an improving sense of health, harmony, and general well-being.
In the Old Testament we are told how Nehemiah maintained his effective guard. He could not be trapped by animal magnetism in the form of Sanballat's invitation to come down to negotiate the closing down of his rebuilding project, nor by the fears and complaints of his fellow workers. The record tells of his alert steadfastness to his work, the restoring of the walls of Jerusalem, and how "every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon." Neh. 4:17;
When the spiritual realities of being are seen, they become tangible to us, and we understand the difference between God's creation and the Adam-dream of personal sense. God, the divine Mind, is recognized as the source and substance of our spiritual understanding. The communication of God to man is direct. Knowing this, one finds himself inseparable from his divine source, not struggling up to it or accepting the suggestion that evil is a real mentality with power to oppose God.
As we learn not to react to mortal mind's suggestions, we are enabled to hold uncomplaining, effective, healing guard. Mortal mind suggests all kinds of erroneous pictures, feelings, and experiences. How they are handled determines the effectiveness of our guard. Also it determines the quality of our existence, whether it is one of spiritual dominion, joy, health, and abandance, or of negative materialism. In the wilderness Jesus rejected and overcame the suggestions of material power with obedience to spiritual law. He called these suggestions "liar" at one time (see John 8:44), and "prince of this world" at another, and said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." John 14:30.
No mortal mind nightmare can impress itself on the man of God's creating, nor can it inoculate spiritual consciousness with its own hatred of Truth. The real man, the image and likeness of God, can no more react to error than can God, Truth. There is no reaction to evil in God's spiritual reflection of Himself. Pure reflection remains pure, positive expression.
Uncomplaining guard in its highest sense is the ceaseless spiritual action of the spirit of Truth. It annuls the claims of false sense, and brings to light the real man, the real universe. It heals. We know that we are holding uncomplaining guard when our watch has healing results; when joyous spiritual sense is realized and inharmony yields to harmony.
