One morning not long ago the postman dropped a Christian Science Sentinel through our letter box. I picked it up and glanced through it, and one article stood out to me. It spoke about contests and explored the different but complementary offices that the Bible gives to two angels called Michael and Gabriel.
The qualities associated with Gabriel were ones I seemed to need particularly that morning, and I found my thought going back to them over and over again. I realized how helpful they were in dealing with so many current problems.
We read in the Bible that Gabriel gave Daniel skill and understanding. It was Gabriel who announced to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus, and this message was accompanied by a gentle "Fear not" and an assurance of the power of God's presence. See Luke 1:26-38.
On the other hand, Michael is described in the Bible as fighting wars and overthrowing the dragon.
Christian Science presents the concept that angels stand for inspirational thoughts from God rather than fanciful winged creatures. But this explanation of Biblical symbols takes nothing from the function of bringing reassurance and strength in times of need. We read, for example, that after Christ Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, "angels came and ministered unto him." Matt. 4:11.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has this to say of angels: "The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine messages, different offices. Michael's characteristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars."
And of Gabriel she goes on to say: "Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through the understanding of God. The Gabriel of His presence has no contests." Science and Health, pp. 566-567.
Of course, this doesn't mean that we can sit back with folded hands and expect an angel to do all the work for us. Spiritual inspiration, represented by Gabriel, brings us the thoughts and qualities we most need at any particular time, especially confidence and fearlessness. Our part is to respond to these divine promptings and turn expectantly to God, divine Love, to show us how best to think, what best to do, and how best to do it. The spiritual message of Michael will follow, giving us strength and resolution.
In responding to these impartings we are adopting something quite different from negative pacifism, but it isn't a violent kind of warfare either. Holy wars are never with people but always with aggressive and destructive thought, whether it seems to be our own or someone else's, individual or collective. In describing war in heaven, the book of Revelation attributes destructive thoughts to Satan, the embodiment of the suggestion that evil is power and intelligence. But the battle against this lie is always mental. And we always have the strength of both Gabriel and Michael at hand to forward victory. So God enables us to see Him as divine Love embracing everyone in spiritual good and revealing man as God's spiritual likeness. We learn more of the unifying force of God, the one divine Mind, imparting wisdom and judgment to His creation, guiding and directing thought.
These two facts—the quieting of fear and unrest through divine Love and the recognition of healing thoughts impelled by divine Mind—are important aspects of Christian Science treatment. Treatment through prayer brings to thought the transforming power of divine Love. The human situation changes as our own thought about it changes under Love's influence. This Christly approach heals physical ills as well as other difficulties. Science and Health states, "Tell the sick that they can meet disease fearlessly, if they only realize that divine Love gives them all power over every physical action and condition." Ibid., p. 420.
Treatment through
prayer brings to thought
the transforming
power of divine Love.
A friend of mine proved this for himself one morning. He had had to come out of an important business meeting because he felt so ill. He telephoned a Christian Science practitioner and asked for immediate treatment through prayer. The first thought that came to the practitioner was that this man didn't have to have a desperate and prolonged struggle against great odds. He could yield spontaneously to the ever-present power of ministering Love and be healed.
A few minutes later the practitioner's telephone rang again, and my friend said: "I'm quite better now. Thank you very much."
A sense of struggle comes from a human feeling of inadequacy, something most of us have to face at times. But what helps isn't whipping ourselves up into trying harder humanly or scolding ourselves for not knowing more or doing better. Instead we lift thought and feeling to a quiet awareness of divine Love's ministering presence with us and everyone else concerned, and yield to it. Then the way is cleared for us to see what to do and how to do it, whatever the particular set of circumstances may be. This approach brings strength with less struggle, and responsiveness that helps remove resistance.
Another Bible story illustrates this warfare well. When armies were gathering against Jehoshaphat and his people, spiritual inspiration led one of the company to proclaim: "Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.... Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you." II Chron. 20:15, 17. And the promise proved true.
Here is a different kind of fighting. It grows from a positive sense of God's direction at every forward move. Standing up to challenges with this sense of God's love and guidance isn't fighting people but rejecting every sense that evil has power to divide and destroy.
At a time like the present, when controversy seems to be so rampant at every level of human experience, this is more than a method of coping with personal problems. It points the way to resolving conflicts of every kind and, better still, to preventing their occurrence.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me
from all my fears. . . . The angel of the Lord encampeth round
about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
Psalms 34:3, 4, 7
