Signs of the Times
We sometimes hear to-day about a so-called crime wave, and how the young people especially are being influenced and attracted by many forms of evil. The ordinary newspaper and many of the current magazines contain articles on the subject. If one were to accept the evidence presented as true, in the absolute sense, the present situation would seem well-nigh hopeless. How should we as Christian Scientists conduct ourselves in regard to this problem? Are we to believe the lies of mortal mind, and fear a so-called power of evil? Or should we not, rather, see in all this a sign of the times, and realize the great fact that Truth is uncovering error only to destroy it?
Our dear Leader, Mrs. Eddy, foresaw this uncovering; for she says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 97 ), "The higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its inarticulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion." Error is screaming for recognition as something real. Are we seeing it as a great and powerful reality that may engulf the whole of humanity in some terrible catastrophe, or are we realizing and demonstrating the utter nothingness of its claims?
We know by what we have demonstrated of Christian Science that evil is unreal. We have proved this, individually and collectively, to such a marked degree that we should have no doubt as to the truth of it. Every healing that has ever taken place in Christian Science has been accomplished on the basis of God's allness and the consequent nothingness of evil. We know that there is in reality neither greater nor lesser evil.
On page 96 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace." And farther on she says: "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection."
What, then, are we to do when confronted by these false claims of mortal mind? We cannot "hold crime in check" by ignoring the belief. No! Is our duty of aiding in the ejection of error and maintaining law and order, then, to be accomplished without specific mental activity? No! So called mortal mind—not man—is the criminal; and when we free our thought from all fear of mortal mind and its claims, from any belief in its reality, power, or attraction, and recognize that God is the only Mind, we shall have done our duty, and can safely leave the rest to God.
Man in the image and likeness of God is the only man there is or can be. Man is pure, honest, spiritual, Christlike; he is the reflection, or expression, of his Father-Mother, Love. Man is not a criminal: he has no evil or malicious desires or inclinations, no inherited or educated belief in evil. Good should naturally attract us, and evil should as naturally repel us. Have we not all seen some one deep in the mire of vice lifted up through the loving ministry of Christian Science to behold "a new heaven and a new earth," and turning forever away from the husks of mortal belief? And has not this proved to us the power and attraction of good, and the utter inability of so-called evil to hold mankind in bondage? How easy, therefore, it should be for us to meet and correct these false beliefs, and "cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection."
The question now arises, How long shall we have to wait for this "ultimate perfection"? God and His universe, including man, are perfect now. They exist now in all their beauty and grandeur; and just in proportion as we awaken to this great fact, and prove it, will it be manifested to us. Have we any record of Christ Jesus having to wait for perfection to appear to him, in order to heal the sick, to calm the storm, or to raise the dead? Time need have nothing to do with our demonstration, since God's work is finished: it is complete and perfect now, regardless of what the so-called evidence of the physical senses may seem to tell us.
Mortal mind argues that the present disturbed conditions are due to the war or to prohibition. It would also have us believe that in time, if let alone, these seeming effects will disappear, and things will become normal once more. This is but an argument of evil to tempt us to ignore the situation, and thereby permit it to continue and possibly become worse. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 284 ): "Evil is not something to fear and flee before, or that becomes more real when it is grappled with. Evil let alone grows more real, aggressive, and enlarges its claims; but, met with Science, it can and will be mastered by Science." There would seem to be no limit to evil's clamor, until it is grappled with by Christian Science; then its boldness disappears, and it returns to its native nothingness.
There is, in reality, no such thing as a crime wave, and the so-called evidence of it is a lie of mortal sense. Are we ready to take our stand for absolute Truth, and grapple with this generally accepted lie as unselfishly and as earnestly as we would for an individual patient? Christian Science alone can successfully cope with this belief and free the world from the effect of its erroneous thinking, in this as in every other direction. What a privilege we have thus to bless the whole world; and what joy and happiness will be ours in the knowledge that we have had a part in the great victory over the seeming forces of evil!
"If God is all in all,
His children cannot fear.
See baseless evil fall,
Knowing that God is here!"
