Article December 4, 1926 Issue

Handling the Serpent

MARGUERITE VON NEUFVILLE

When we first gain a glimpse of God's spiritual, real creation, like Moses we are impelled to throw away our belief in material living and material power, the staff on which we were leaning. In our joy over the new-gained vision of Truth, we take this step gladly, feeling sure that in this new light we can walk safely, and that evil will touch us no more. But to our amazement we soon discover that this is not all we have to do; and we begin to see that the thrown-away staff comes back to us in the form of a serpent. We see it for the first time in its hideousness and aggressiveness; and in our disappointment too often we are driven away by fear, forgetting that we should stand firm and demonstrate our new-found knowledge of God's allness by proving its power to overcome the serpent.

There is no wisdom in fleeing from error: evil beliefs will follow us until we take our stand and handle them, overcoming our fear; for thus we scientifically demonstrate evil's unreality, leaning on the newly found staff of spiritual understanding. This handling of the serpent, this warfare with error, is necessary to our progress heavenward. It is not sufficient simply to declare for God's allness: we must strive to prove it. In the light of Truth we must discover the hidden subtleties of all false beliefs, and destroy them patiently and persistently. Often one is tempted to be discouraged over the many problems which present themselves. Then we should remember Jesus' words, "I came not to send peace, but a sword."

The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says, "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." We do not remember as we should that this sword is equal to every emergency; that "error falls only before the sword of Spirit," as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 37). The Word of God, when rightly applied, does the work; and we have the promise of God to the prophet Isaiah, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." And God said to the same prophet, "Concerning the work of my hands command ye me." It is greatly comforting to know that the understanding of God, good, gives us dominion over evil, and that all of Truth is present for us to use in this glorious warfare.

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