Have you ever noticed how most little children play together harmoniously in a sandbox or schoolyard, but sometimes there's a kid who tries to grab all the toys or bully others? There may be many opinions about where this tendency comes from, but most of us would agree it has some connection with a desire to be first. The king of the mountain. The discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, observed, "Two personal queries give point to human action: Who shall be greatest? and, Who shall be best?" (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, p. 268).
This trait may start in childhood games, but in one form or another, it appears in the thought of most of us as we mature. Just the other day an outstanding major league baseball player said he used performance-enhancing drugs because he wanted to be the best ballplayer in the world.
The desire to be greatest is not new, of course. At least once, Jesus' disciples argued over who was the greatest among them (see Mark 9:33, 34). And the mother of two of them once asked Jesus to give them a favored place with him (see Matt. 20:20, 21).
Competitive conflicts may be academic and even cordial at the entry level. But they don't always stay that way. There is an ascending scale of intensity and the competition can become unpleasant as deeper assumptions are being challenged. Many earnest thinkers, such as some in the medical, theological, and scientific fields, feel that the future of their personal reputations is at stake when positions they hold or discoveries they have perhaps spent their lives studying, are challenged. They strongly desire to be best or greatest with ideas, theories, discoveries, teaching, authorship, institutional founding and funding, etc. Mrs. Eddy observed, "Competition in commerce, deceit in councils, dishonor in nations, dishonesty in trusts, begin with, 'Who shall be greatest?'" (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 4).
At some point in this ascending scale of competition, selfish desires can drive people to use harmful mental means to gain their ends. Sandbox problems can intensify into what Mrs. Eddy referred to as animal magnetism and mental malpractice. Those are the use of hostile and often harsh mental practices to establish one's superiority. Mrs. Eddy observed: "The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. The looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle" (Science and Health, p. 102).
Mrs. Eddy knew whereof she wrote. But she was not an eager investigator of subtle evil intrigue. Probably none of us is. It is like exploring a dimly lighted cavern inhabited by poisonous serpents. She wrote: "I shall not forget the cost of investigating, for this age, the methods and power of error. While the ways, means, and potency of Truth had flowed into my consciousness as easily as dawns the morning light and shadows flee, the metaphysical mystery of error—its hidden paths, purpose, and fruits—at first defied me. I was saying all the time, 'Come not thou into the secret'—but at length took up the research according to God's command" (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, pp. 222-223)
A basic reason for opposition could be struggle over the question, Who shall be greatest, matter or Spirit, God?
There are many examples of her experience with this evil mental influence to which others were, and even today still are, so blind that they ridiculed Mrs. Eddy then and Christian Scientists today for discussing it.
For instance, there are problems within Church experience. On page 44 of Retrospection and Introspection, Mrs. Eddy described in detail what happened with her Church in Boston at one period, and how she solved the problem. Briefly, while she was in charge, the Church prospered. When she was called by God to other duties and stopped preaching every Sunday, the members couldn't sustain the progress and harmony. As she analyzed the situation, she realized the crisis had arisen because the members failed to take the time and make the effort to protect their thoughts from opposing mental elements she herself had recognized and neutralized through prayer. They quarreled with one another under its hidden influence. They were unaware of what she saw clearly as, "... the envy and molestation of other churches, and ... the danger to its members which must always lie in Christian warfare."
She recommended the church dissolve. Apparently that was enough to either awake the members or distract their enemies, or both, because a degree of harmony and prosperity were restored. The church was reorganized a few years later on a more spiritual basis that endured.
This 1890s situation has a parallel today. Though Christian Science has gained important and appropriate recognition in some sectors of public thought, a brief glance at Internet postings shows it is still bitterly, openly opposed in other sectors.
A basic reason for opposition could be a struggle over the question, Who shall be greatest, matter or Spirit, God? The world of organized mortal belief insists that all reality originates in and is wholly controlled by the so-called laws of matter. It insists that the rise, condition of existence, and fall of all things are controlled by those laws, which cannot be modified or altered any more than the sunrise or seasons can be changed.
On the other hand, the theology of Christian Science reveals that all reality is created and sustained by God, divine Mind. It reveals the allness of the one God, and man as His perfect expression, forever at one with Him. It proves through practical and undeniable healing that what is called evil in any form is a belief or error that can, and even certainly will, be dissolved by God's Christ, or His loving embrace of His creation.
This truth is the gentle, powerful Comforter Christ Jesus promised. It is the final revelation of scientific, spiritual healing, in the broadest application of that word. It is the hope of the age because it is saving the race from aggressive, organized efforts to force humanity to accept the lie that matter, not God, is supreme. This aggression may be the ultimate sandbox problem. God, not matter, is the greatest. The superiority of God proves the nothingness of matter. The laws of God prove the falsity of the so-called laws of matter.
Given the nature of opposition in Christ Jesus' day and in Mrs. Eddy's life, it should not be surprising that her Church today would experience challenges.
Some say these challenges are natural cycles of human events and organizations, like cycles in the stock market. Others feel the theology of Christian Science has been largely superseded by progress in material medicine, although the general public is abandoning matter-based medicine in search of methods with better healing records, including the system of Christian Science. Some observers hold the view that Christian Science is simply being challenged as the years pass since its Founder was active. And there are suggestions that some internal decisions over the past century have harmed it.
As reasonable as these explanations are from human perspectives, it seems fair to ask if they reach the level of moral and spiritual insight Mrs. Eddy had to attain to solve similar problems in her early Church. She saw that Church challenges can arise from unhandled, hidden, subtle, and sometimes malicious mental influences. For instance, are there unnatural inclinations in the thoughts and characters of members that are ripe for removal because they undermine the holiness from which sweet spiritual healing unfolds? Does a gentle sense of compromise and brotherly love permeate members' thoughts, or do they demand to have their own opinions heard in an effort to be greatest? Do kindness, good will, and Christian appreciation set the tone of private conversations about one another, or do personal comments and criticism creep in?
It is helpful in defeating evil to not mistake outward or secondary effects for primary, hidden causes. To be alert to the secret, malicious purpose of mental opposition helps anyone understand that inharmony, strife, etc., are the secondary level of evil's seeming operation. The primary level is the malice and envy inherent in what Paul referred to as the carnal mind and Mrs. Eddy referred to as mortal mind. This basic evil manifests itself in those systems that would be greatest and that would take any steps to achieve that end. Mrs. Eddy explained candidly, "The powers of evil are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and operative in Christian Science." She also said that "large numbers" are "organizing action against us" (Mis., p. 177). She explained: "The natural fruits of Christian Science Mind-healing are harmony, brotherly love, spiritual growth and activity. The malicious aim of perverted mind-power, or animal magnetism, is to paralyze good and give activity to evil. It starts factions and engenders envy and hatred ..." (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 213). This often subtle, malicious action is discussed in detail in the Bible book of Apocalypse (Revelation), and in the Science and Health chapter with the same name.
To the great relief of humanity, Mrs. Eddy also discovered that every phase of evil, no matter how intricate or subtle, is powerless before God, divine Love. She wrote, "Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit secondary" (Science and Health, p. 207). Her early experience indicates the members were simply less attentive to earnest study than they needed to be in order to uncover and nullify the bold and malicious mental elements that would undermine their best efforts and deprive the whole human family of the one system of healing that saves from all evil. As they let the Christ awaken them to pray consistently about the nothingness of unseen, secret, mental opposition, their Church and its members were roused to fulfill their healing mission for the world. Those healing gifts did not diminish, but they naturally expanded and prospered in right ways. As we are alert and obedient today, the same result is assured. God is the one, great I AM.
