Article May 6, 1922 Issue

Temptation

ROSALIE S. JACOBY

When Christ Jesus prayed, "Lead us not into temptation," he centainly referred to the only temptation there is,—the temptation to believe that which is false. When Jesus was tempted of the devil, he refused three times to believe that which was false. First, he denied the claim that material food, "bread," sustains man; next, he refused to believe that matter is substance,—that all the kingdoms of this world constitute true riches; and, finally, he denied the belief in a power opposed to God, knowing that the real man is governed and controlled by God, good. He knew the suggestions of the evil one to be lying illusions which Truth dissipates.

Among the many falsities which are trying to deceive mankind, none is more subtle than the claim that good can be the effect of evil. The writer was lately led into an argument on the subject of prohibition, and one of the strongest points the human so-called mind could array in favor of drink was that many men are more efficient workers when under the influence of alcohol. As examples, two renowned men were cited, an actor and a public speaker, both of whom, it was claimed, were always at their best when stimulated by intoxicants. The lie operates so subtly as not to be detected on first consideration; but such a proposition can only appear to be true. It is not that the drinker can really do better work when stimulated; but, rather, that he is in such bondage to the habit that he believes himself incapable of successful accomplishment without it. What slavery! He gets, then, to depend more and more upon it, to think that his achievement is the result of the sinful indulgence; whereas it is really his dependence on evil which is preventing him from doing his best consistently at all times. Thus, the one who succumbs to this belief is simply accepting a lying argument as true. Sometime he will begin to pray: Lead me not into the temptation of believing that which is false. And in that moment he will have taken his first step towards freedom.

The Bible declares that Jesus "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Jesus is the Way-shower to us for the reason that he has shown how to overcome all temptation, and how to rise above material beliefs and laws. The belief that life inheres in the flesh, or matter, is one continual temptation. From the moment of birth mortals are subject to some phase of this temptation, to fear this or that,—food, exposure, heredity, contagion, death. There is also the enticing suggestion that different forms of sin are pleasurable and excusable. The antidote for all these, as Christian Science shows and proves, lies in thinking and living one continual prayer, to be as the apostle Paul says, "instant in prayer." As Mrs. Eddy admonishes us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210), "Keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them." We are also warned by her in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 392) to "stand porter at the door of thought." The teachings of Christian Science are instructing humanity how thus to stand porter, how to bar out temptation by not admitting the lie into thought. We often see this demonstrated by the little children who have attended our Sunday schools, and who are with difficulty tempted to fear.

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