Editorial April 21, 1928 Issue

"Who is mine adversary?"

Albert F. Gilmore

The prophet Isaiah was possessed of a profound assurance that God is a God at hand and not afar off, and that full-hearted trust in Him is rewarded with many blessings, including divine protection. In proof of his great faith in God as his sure deliverer the prophet declared, "He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me." The implication plainly is that the prophet rested in a sense of security in the divine presence that would shield him from attacks of the adversary, in whatever form of material belief presented. Thus the son of Amoz raised the problem of the adversary, the antagonist with whom it seems mortals have so constantly to contend.

Christian Science answers Isaiah's question, "Who is mine adversary?" and goes much further; for not only does Christian Science define adversary, but it sets forth with perfect clarity the method whereby the seeming adversary is destroyed—reduced to its native nothingness. In the definition which appears in the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 580, 581), Mrs. Eddy likens the adversary who opposes Truth, denies and disputes it, to Satan—that is, to the devil of the Scriptures. And on page 584 (ibid.) she defines "devil" in part as "evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor mind." Here the character of the adversary is fully explained. It is a lie, falsity, "neither corporeality nor mind." Then, obviously, evil which mortals seem to have to contend with is nothing, which claims to be something, a nonentity claiming entity. The situation could scarcely be made plainer.

What are we to do with the adversary? Precisely what is done with every phase of error; for adversary, broadly considered, includes all falsity arising from the belief in life as material, as engendered by matter and supported by it. Isaiah found his remedy for the belief in an opposing power, the adversary, in his sublime faith in God, in the presence of good; and it is evident that this clear-visioned prophet had that degree of spiritual understanding which enabled him to meet and destroy the claims of error on the basis of their nothingness. He was certain of the availability of divine power, when invoked with understanding, to overcome every false presentment of the adversary.

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