Editorial September 14, 1918 Issue

Linger Not, Do Not Delay

William P. McKenzie

There is all the difference in the world between delaying and waiting. When a man lingers within the attraction of error and delays the decision which will effect his deliverance from its bondage and seduction, he is really postponing right thinking and failing in necessary action. When a man, on the other hand, obeys the inspiring counsel to wait on the Lord there is neither delay nor lingering in this, but true metaphysical action, as is shown by the results. The inspiring words of the psalm are, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him," and the reward of that attitude is, "He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday."

Trust in God, then, indicates action, not inactivity or numbness as of one drugged with error. Faith implies activity and the movement of life. It is indeed the laying hold of true life, the acquiring of good, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." A translator shows how such faith means that we are "confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see;" hence it naturally follows that the record of those who are called men of faith is a record of action leading to satisfactory results.

Now what is the argument of the senses? It is that evil is real and must be endured. But Christian Science bids us overcome evil, not endure it. Its teaching is, "Unless an ill is rightly met and fairly overcome by Truth, the ill is never conquered;" and "Resisting evil, you overcome it and prove its nothingness" (Science and Health, pp. 231, 446). But in controversion of this comes the argument that evil exists in others as fixed character or in our surroundings as immovable environment; hence the view that multitudes of men must be slain, or that old foundations and walls must be blasted away as a means for deliverance. Further it is said that as you cannot kill off the most of men nor change the fixed customs of the ages, the best thing to do is to be satisfied with things as they are, endure the common disregard of the Decalogue, suffer the continuance of a philosophy which annuls Christianity; in other words, say of evil, Let it be. Christian Science comes to our rescue to show the fallacy of this argument. The teaching of the textbook is (Science and Health, p. 571): "At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil." Now one may admit the vastness of the problem if he looks at a world in error, but when he sees the problem in its simplicity as his own problem and that he must just deal with himself and within himself overcome evil with good, the whole situation is clarified.

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