Editorial July 2, 1910 Issue

"BE WATCHFUL, SOBER, AND VIGILANT."*

Archibald McLellan

Nowhere in her published writings has Mrs. Eddy more clearly and emphatically directed attention to the unreality of evil than in her "Message to The Mother Church, June, 1901" (Library Edition, p. 48), in which she writes: "Evil is neither quality nor quantity: it is not intelligence, a person or a principle, a man or a woman, a place or a thing, and God never made it." Again, in defining the difference between this doctrine and the commonly accepted teaching on evil, she says: "Our only departure from ecclesiasticism on this subject is, that our faith takes hold of the fact that evil cannot be made so real as to frighten us and so master us, or to make us love it and so hinder our way to holiness. We regard evil as a lie, an illusion, therefore as unreal as a mirage that misleads the traveler on his way home" (ibid., p. 50).

Discriminating Christian Scientists do not find in any of Mrs. Eddy's writings that she ignores, in the slightest degree, the false claims of evil; but they do find that she has ever been alert in counseling her followers to "be watchful, sober, and vigilant" in mastering these false beliefs which would tempt them to forget that "evil is not power" (Science and Health, p. 102).

To be consistent Christian Scientists, therefore, we must faithfully demonstrate the falseness of the claims of evil, and thus prove their nothingness. The Master told his followers that they were not to allow themselves to be overcome of evil, but they must themselves "overcome evil with good"; and it is for us to make effective before the world our professions that God, good, is All. Our duty in this regard is very clearly stated in Article VIII., Sect. 6, of the Church Manual, and our Leader has again emphasized both the need and the remedy on page 442 of Science and Health, in the words, "Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake."

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