Article August 10, 1918 Issue

The True Battle Ground

MARY E. BOVET

In referring to the resistance of the Pharisees to Jesus' teaching, Mrs. Eddy defines briefly the battle ground of the past and of the present when she says (Unity of Good, p. 46): "The fight was an effort to enthrone evil. Jesus assumed the burden of disproof by destroying sin, sickness, and death, to sight and sense." Now Christ Jesus said that he was "the way, the truth, and the life;" therefore it is manifest that each one who wishes to follow the way he pointed out, practice the truth he taught, and live the life he lived, must also assume this "burden of disproof," remembering always that the Master declared his burden light.

Viewing the conflict as thus defined by Mrs. Eddy, we can readily see that no one can be exempt and no one can be noncombatant on this battle ground; for so long as evil seems to be enthroned anywhere at all, the good fight will not be over nor the battle won. Is this discouraging? Not at all! It is but a trumpet call of no uncertain sound; for it distinctly bids us to go forward, and at the same time clearly shows us without any possibility of mistake what the enemy is and what is his intention; namely, "to enthrone evil." Surely this eliminates any belief that the enemy we confront is a terrifying disease, an attractive sin, an overpowering habit, an engulfing appetite, a devasting circumstance, or a material law. We recognize that we are face to face with the attempt openly or insidiously to enthrone evil, and that, as Mrs. Eddy says (Unity of Good, p. 39), "as soldiers of the cross we must be brave, and let Science declare the immortal status of man."

Evil can never be enthroned, for the very good reason that God, good, is already enthroned, always has been enthroned, and always will be. Add to this the fact that God, good, is omnipresent, and it is readily seen that there is no room for evil. Then, surely, if this is the fight, we have only to remain alive to its nature to be victors at all times. Can we fail to recognize that evil is powerless and without place in God's universe? Not unless we acknowledge first that there is some place where evil has managed to enthrone itself, or unless we call it by some other name and arm it with some supposed medical law, some mistaken theological belief, or some superstition of decadent occultism. With such admissions, we may be lulled into the hazy nightmare that there is something awful seeking to overcome us which needs some gigantic effort on our part if it is to be overthrown. Viewed in this way we may quail before it as something real; whereas had we left it as a vain attempt to enthrone evil, it would have been readily mastered.

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