Editorial December 8, 1906 Issue

PUT UP THY SWORD

Archibald McLellan

When Jesus was seized by the servants of those who had conspired for his betrayal, one of the disciples drew his sword and cut off an ear of a servant of the high priest. This was the method of the world, to meet physical force with physical force, and to fight with carnal weapons, but it was not the method of the Christ. Our Master immediately healed the wounded man, and rebuked the impetuosity of Peter with one of his greatest sayings, "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, has shown herself a follower of the Christ in her fidelity to the letter and the spirit of this teaching, and to every teaching of the Master, and in doing so she has set an example which her followers and the world may emulate with profit. Her article in The Inpendent is the most Christian utterance since Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," and Christian Scientists can do no better than to follow Mrs. Eddy's example, and deal with the attacks of evil in the same Christian manner in which she has dealt with them. Good alone is power, evil cannot be overcome with evil; and there is no better time to keep this in mind than the present.

An orderly and Christian method has provided for the refutation of the false and misleading statements about Christian Science and our Leader which appear from time to time in the press, and this method is the very simple one of arraying truth against falsehood,—a method which requires no intemperate zeal, no passion, no uncharitableness, no abuse. Whether the motive behind the attack be a mistaken sense of right or a desire to sell more papers, our duty is plain, and when we have done this duty we can afford to wait patiently for the right to appear. In the first instance we will hope that the critic needs but to know the truth in order to change his views. In the second instance the speculation will be a losing one, for the reason that public sentiment has been aroused to the baseness of such methods of making money.

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