Article August 3, 1912 Issue

EVIL REVERSED

MARY HORNIBROOK CUMMINS.

When reading the ninth chapter of Acts, thought turns involuntarily toward the little group of Christians at Damascus. We cannot help picturing what their mental attitude must have been when they knew that Saul of Tarsus—the persecutor who had watched and consented to the stoning of Stephen, Saul, the lawyer who could pick to pieces any defense which they might make, Saul with the power and authority of the chief priests behind him—had actually started for Damascus with the avowed intention of bringing them bound unto Jerusalem.

It would be difficult to imagine a more unpromising outlook for that little group of disciples! Viewed from a human standpoint, there was not one hopeful thing about this episode, not a single loophole by which they might escape. That they loyally trusted in God to deliver them we may safely conclude, but that there was some fear is shown by Ananias' answer to the angel, "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem." We see reluctance on the part of Ananias to come into any personal relation with Saul, until reassured by the voice of God. But Ananias need not have feared, for the Saul of Tarsus who left Jerusalem never arrived at Damascus. In his place came "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God."

How often, today, we seem to see some "Saul of Tarsus" journeying toward us. It may be in the form of a definite ordeal from which we would gladly escape, were it possible; or it may be a vague fear, in our work as Christian Scientists, of human law, of the authority which is apparently able to take us "bound to Jerusalem." Let us remember, however, that error never arrives at its destination. No matter how auspiciously it may seem to have started, no matter what the asserted authority behind it, Christ, Truth, appears to demonstrate God's law of annihilation to all that is unlike Love, as we are so often assured in our revered Leader's writings. Relying wholly upon the Christ as our protector, we shall hear, as undoubtedly did those disciples at Damascus, the promise given in the ninety-first Psalm, "It shall not come nigh thee." Nay, more, the threatening of disaster will prove to be—as in their case—that which ministers unto us spiritually.

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