Article November 12, 1910 Issue

IMPERSONAL WARFARE

VIOLET KER SEYMER

Students of Christian Science sometimes hamper their earnest efforts to rise above evil by condemning themselves, rather than condemning the various forms of evil which they have not yet outgrown. Self-condemnation is one of the greatest barriers to progress, and it is the fruit of regarding evil first as real, and second as personal. Such students wistfully watch the progress of others and deplore their own backwardness. Beliefs of discouragement, tinged with envy, presently set in, and the student sinks into the slough of despond, a prey to morbid regrets, little realizing that God's gladness is all about him, and that he could rise rapidly into practical reformation if only he would take a more impersonal view of the situation.

Belief in evil being the only evil, this mistaken belief, this seemingly powerful delusion, needs to be combated as a universal rather than as a personal tempter. One should as conscientiously resist the tendency to look upon evil as personal as one would avoid regarding good as personal. All God's children are by divine right joint holders in that which is good and true; humanity should therefore regard the belief in evil as its common enemy and fight it with the all-sufficient weapons of Truth and Love. It is right to eradicate one's own sense of evil in all its forms, but to lapse into self-condemnation results in needlessly handicapping the warrior.

Apart from Christian Science there is failure to discriminate between cause and effect, where evil is concerned; materialistic systems frequently condemn sinners and invalids, thereby condemning the consequences or effects of the preceding false belief. In Christian Science practice, however, the case is reversed: the false beliefs are condemned as untrue and unreal, and the victims are set free. Not until evil is rejected in theory, will mortals cease to be its victims in practice. All that is of God is forever good, true, and universal, while all that seems to be discordant is forever false and unknowable. To ruminate over evil is worse than useless, and only serves to prolong the delusion from which humanity is at least learning to awaken.

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DESTROYING EVIL
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