Editorial May 18, 1918 Issue

Our Boys at the Front

William D. McCrackan

What does it mean to be at the front? Is it to be at the front with evil or to be at the front with God? Mrs. Eddy writes on page 102 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front." We can meet those "aggressive features" behind the fortifications of Christian Science. Daniel was at the front when he faced the lions. He boldly confronted evil, and his obedience to God was rewarded by his deliverance. Every one has the opportunity to be at the front with God who takes on the Mind of the Christ.

When Jesus was at the spiritual front in the garden of Gethsemane fighting the great battle of life against death, he besought those whom he left behind to "watch and pray." The danger is always present that those who are at home may enter into the temptation of mesmeric sleep, for "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." With laudable care righteous governments are providing for the feeding and clothing of their military and naval forces. Christian Scientists are helping to meet these human needs in many useful ways, especially indicated to the readers of their periodicals. But a greater obligation rests upon those instructed in Christian Science, to make their watching and praying effective in sustaining spiritually the armies fighting at the front. What is the right interpretation of the injunction to "watch and pray" with reference to those whom we delight to call "our boys"?

To properly sustain them we must first understand war to be fundamentally mental. Not a shot is fired but what has its origin in mind action of some sort. Every weapon has been thought out before it can be used; every one of the multifarious inventions used in the war zone has issued from the thinking of some one. The physical effect of all these destructive contrivances is due to mental preparation, and expresses the intent of human will power. It is also becoming clearer every day to the unprejudiced observer of the war that it was prepared in secret council; its possibilities were weighed and its probable effects forecast while the world at large was oblivious of the threatening danger. What must have been the hidden consultations, the agreements and engagements, which could finally produce an outburst such as the world has witnessed since August, 1914? The battle plan was already in mind, the strategy of the war had already been chosen, the mental manipulation had already long been practiced when war was outwardly declared.

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