Article October 11, 1919 Issue

The man who has learned to trust scientifically has gone...

The Christian Science Monitor

The man who has learned to trust scientifically has gone far toward placing himself beyond the effort of anger, of malice, or of fear, in short of evil of any kind, to injure him. Jesus of Nazareth knew this perfectly when he said to Peter, in all the agony of the garden of Gethsemane, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" A few years later, Paul, speaking to the elders of the Ephesian Church, at Miletus, declared of the persecutions he saw around him, "None of these things move me," insisting that it was not a man's business to trouble about the future, but to keep himself every whit clean in the present, remembering only of his neighbors that Jesus had taught them how "it is more blessed to give than to receive."

What all this means Mrs. Eddy has made abundantly clear in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." On page 79 she writes: "Mind-Science teaches that mortals need 'not be weary in well doing.' It dissipates fatigue in doing good. Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us. We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving utterance to truth." At the same time the only way in which we can renew and maintain this strength is in the way Christ Jesus explained to Peter. It is by surrounding ourselves with God's angels, with an unfaltering reliance on divine Love, with a truly metaphysical understanding of Principle. Angels, however, be it said, are not super men and women poised on wings. Angels, in the definition of Mrs. Eddy, on page 581 of Science and Health, are "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality."

Now the whole of Christian Science consists, first, in gaining a scientific understanding of God, as the New Testament puts it, and then in demonstrating this understanding, again as the New Testament insists, through mighty works or signs, terms the Greek originals of which are translated in the English version as miracles. It is evident, therefore, that as an understanding of Principle comes to a man, as he banishes sensuality and materiality from his mind, he surrounds himself with angels, with true or scientific thoughts, through which the fears and temptations of the flesh cannot pass. This shows how true is Mrs. Eddy's saying on page 10 of "Miscellaneous Writings," that "even in belief you have but one (that, not in reality), and this one enemy is yourself—your erroneous belief that you have enemies; that evil is real; that aught but good exists in Science." When a man, in other words, fences himself about with right thinking, how is it possible for evil to befall him or come nigh his dwelling, which is in divine Mind? If he fails to do this, whose fault is it, and who except himself can he accuse as his enemy?

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