It's a common instinct to shrink from the unpleasant, just hoping it will go away. Like sea anemones retreating into themselves when they detect a threat, human beings sometimes simply withdraw from things that are not nice and that threaten their comfort and security.
Although, fundamentally, Christian Science claims and proves the inclusive omnipresence of God, good, it doesn't leave unfaced or unchallenged the claim of the not good. The Science of Love doesn't brush aside the appearances of evil but helps mankind confront and break the delusions causing its sufferings. This Science is not a cozy human-mind psychology allowing us to ignore what's bad; nor is it a vaporous mysticism concealing evil. Its students aren't superficially believing they "live in a world where everything's good, and what isn't is unreal." To think of Science as just a protective cocoon would be worse than simplistic. It would make a grotesque parody of Science.
Referring to Mary Baker Eddy's views on this theme, one of her household recalled: "Someone sent her a set of the three little brass monkeys—'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.' That, said Mrs. Eddy in substance, is not Christian Science, it is heathen philosophy. Christian Scientists do not close their eyes to evil, but open them. They open their eyes, spiritual discernment, and awaken to the true nature of evil or sin, to its false claims, methods, subtlety, etc., and then realize its nothingness, its utter powerlessness to control or to harm." We Knew Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1979), p. 117 .
What are popularly called the three wise monkeys we would describe, then, as a trio of very unwise monkeys. The Scientist, nevertheless, doesn't feel heavily depressed because he is required to handle evils. He is buoyant and confident, having the tools for doing the job, regardless of how extended this battle, or that war, with evil seems to be.
Science teaches not only to accept the presence, love, and goodness of God, but to deny the destructive, down-pulling tendencies of mortal mind. In this it is totally realistic; let anyone merely slide across the surface of evil with dreamy optimism that evil can't be, or act, and he will soon be pulled up short. "It is scientific," Mrs. Eddy writes, "to abide in conscious harmony, in health-giving, deathless Truth and Love. To do this, mortals must first open their eyes to all the illusive forms, methods, and subtlety of error, in order that the illusion, error, may be destroyed; if this is not done, mortals will become the victims of error."Retrospection and Introspection, p. 64.
No Christian Scientist has successfully practiced one-sidedly—that is, by always affirming the good only and never refuting arguments of matter, finity, and mortality. To do so would be like rowing with only one oar. The boat goes around in circles. (On the other hand, to be obsessed with evil is as futile—again, merely to row with one, though the opposite, oar.)
Drawing the shade on what the senses argue, rather than scientifically refuting the argument, is sensuality—just as much so as wallowing in what the senses convey. It is just as much sensuality as accepting the senses to be primary sources of information about reality.
Christ, Truth, speaks to us through spiritual sense. Mortal mind would speak to us through, and as, the personal senses. The Christian Scientist is not metaphorically putting his hands over the senses and casually disregarding what they say—like the three wise/unwise monkeys. Through cultivating spiritual insight he is uncovering the illusiveness of sense evidence. He is learning to replace the illusion with spiritual evidence. In other words, he heals.
Mortal mind and the carnal senses can no more talk to the real man than to God. Or even talk at all. God is always the one, all-knowing Mind, and man is God's reflection. His faculties are incorporeal. His being is in Spirit, not matter. His life is in divine Life. His intelligence is found in Mind, divine consciousness.
To step over something, such as trash on the basement floor, may be a way of ignoring it. We're vaguely aware it's there and avoid tripping over it. However, vaguely rationalizing error away is not even to step over it, but to be in danger of falling over it.
Hence the importance of Christ Jesus' example in definitely dealing with error. Mrs. Eddy gives us this analysis: "Jesus taught us to walk over, not into or with, the currents of matter, or mortal mind." And further down the page: "Jesus stooped not to human consciousness, nor to the evidence of the senses. He heeded not the taunt, 'That withered hand looks very real and feels very real;' but he cut off this vain boasting and destroyed human pride by taking away the material evidence."Unity of Good, p. 11. Had Jesus disregarded material evidence, not taken it away, he would have been no healer to the sick and the sinning. To the adulterous woman he said, "Go, and sin no more."John 8:11.
The body's senses tell us of mortals, of physical personalities. Spiritual sense tells of divine Spirit and its ideal expression, man. Should we leave the arguments of matter unnegated, we could find ourselves fascinated by human personalities. The popularity of some magazines and talk shows focusing on personal trivia suggests how widespread such fascination may be. Psychobiographies—books purporting to expose the psychological development and abnormalities of prominent people—are mildly fashionable. But the pull toward material personality is the pull to mortality.
Whether evident in ourselves or in the media, this pull has to be faced up to, exposed, diminished, annulled. How? Through a willingness to pick up by the tail the serpentine claim of life in matter; through nullifying the claim with specific Christly truths of the real nature of man as the idea of Soul, God.
"When unconscious of a mistake, one thinks he is not mistaken; but this false consciousness does not change the fact, or its results; suffering and mistakes recur until one is awake to their cause and character," Mrs. Eddy points out. "To know the what, when, and how of error, destroys error. The error that is seen aright as error, has received its deathblow; but never until then."Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 298-299. This frank, direct statement makes clear our Leader's reasons for discounting the message of the three monkeys. Her followers take serious note of its implications.
