Editorial October 26, 1918 Issue

Unconditional Surrender

William D. McCrackan

There is no affiliation between truth and error, love and hate, life and death. Of these opposites the unreal must always be driven to unconditional surrender before the real. This is the battle of life as waged by the spiritually minded. The Bible is both a warlike book and a peace loving book, but it does not inculcate peace until the victory of good over evil has been won. There is hardly a chapter of that book which does not refer to war in one form or another, yet Jesus could finally say: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Thus spake the man who was about to receive the unconditional surrender of hate and death and to prove himself master of these enemies in a way which posterity would be able to understand, namely, by his resurrection and ascension.

The first battle recorded in the Bible was fratricidal. There could be no compromise between the states of consciousness typified by Cain and Abel. The criminal who will surrender only to force and the individual who willingly surrenders all to God have nothing in common. In the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 579) Mrs. Eddy thus defines Abel: "Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to the creator the early fruits of experience." Commenting upon the Bible story of Cain slaying Abel she writes on pages 541 and 542 of the same book: "The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood of man at the very outset. ... The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It incurs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material beliefs would slay the spiritual idea whenever and wherever it appears. Though error hides behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils error." The reader is invited to study further what Mrs. Eddy has to say on the succeeding pages concerning the fate of the erroneous belief typified by Cain. The times are ripe for a clear application of Christian Science teaching to world events. The demand of Principle to error must always be unconditional surrender. In the world war error with Cain-like ferocity has been slaying Abel again and again, but it is now caught in the trap it had devised for others. It is facing the unconditional surrender it had planned for others.

Abel's sweet surrender to Spirit has no counterpart in Cain's forced and unconditional surrender after a criminal record of incredible diabolism. Abel understands that life is not in matter, and surrenders his belief of material life to that Life which is God. Cain is not enough of a man to surrender willingly. He is too cowardly to submit, because he believes his end is inevitable and his punishment unavoidable. The criminal who knows his fate and stands at bay determined to sell his life dearly, refuses to surrender, not from Principle but from fear.

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Fear Cast Out
October 26, 1918
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