Article November 2, 1918 Issue

Within and Without the Camp

CHARLES HENRY PHILIPS

When word was given out that the three largest Christian Science churches in each state might call a confrence of delegates to consider the organizing of Camp Welfare committees for the purpose of directing Christian Science activity in the camps and cantonments of the United States, not only was a service for the physical and moral well-being of the soldier inaugurated, but a spiritual impetus of vital importance to the soldier and to the cause for which he enlisted was imparted, such as never in the record of camp annals has been paralleled. It should not be inferred, however, that the soldier's welfare had not been systematically and assiduously looked after up to this time, nor that his religious inclinations had not been encouraged and stimulated; rather was this official action an evidence of the perception of the scientific fact that both within and without the camp the first requisite for a soldier, in training or on actual service, is a Christlike preparation of thought to meet and master the foes of his own mental household.

While it is recognized as an essential of this Camp Welfare activity that the physical needs of the soldier should be considered and supplied, and that nothing should be left undone that would add to his comfort or minister to his necessity, yet the foundational motive of this movement, as of every other activity in Christian Science, is spiritually to energize thought, to lift it above the dead issues of carnal beliefs into a living comprehension and demonstration of divine realities. To this end the soldier as well as the civilian is undergoing as never before a mental sifting, which is purging human consciousness of all unrighteous thinking and purifying as in a fire every least fiber of the human self, thus consuming greed, lust, and hate. To be explict, the exact Science of Jesus' Christianity is entering into and being applied to all mental activities, whether in the camps, the trenches, or on the firing line. The present mental activities are but the intensified outward manifestations of an inner spiritual grace and divine inspiration, which is leavening the entire mass of material ways and means, regenerating and cleansing individual, national, and international consciousness, and making the world a cleaner, safer, and holier place in which to dwell "until he come whose right it is."

It will thus be seen that the camp may be made a disciplinary school, bringing the soldier to the Christ, Truth, through the sacrifice, or giving up, of every carnal belief which could in any manner obstruct his vision in the line of duty and patriotism. Whether or not the soldier can describe his present attitude in precisely these terms, he willingly and generously concedes that thoughts are gripping him now which he rarely if ever heeded before; that in very truth the "new order" is reversing mental processes, and he is actually facing the foes of his own household. In other words, the singleness of his purpose to help in bringing about the highest good for the greatest number is actually disarming a legion of false accusers and relegating them to where "the dead bury their dead."

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