Temptation Overcome

Leroy G. Stump

IN our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy frequently emphasizes the need of following the example of Christ Jesus both in spiritual growth and in experience. Showing how complete must be this endeavor, she says on page 26, "Jesus spares us not one individual experience, if we follow his commands faithfully."

A large portion of the individual experiences of Jesus were instances of his meeting and overcoming the mesmeric influence of mortal beliefs—evil in every form and manner of presentation. According to Matthew, these experiences following the confirmation to him of his divine Sonship, commenced with his temptation in the wilderness. In the third chapter of Matthew it is related that "Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, . . . and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

As the unfoldment of the seeming mystery of God, good, touches the purified and uplifted thought of the student of Christian Science, he receives the message of divine revelation concerning the nature of man: "This is my beloved Son." This is an individual experience, the revelation of the real man's sonship with God, of his at-one-ment with God. It does not and cannot come through matter or the material senses, but is spiritually discerned in the individual consciousness.

It is recorded that immediately after the divine commendation, Jesus was led up "into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." In the wilderness experience Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights. May not this be understood to indicate that in resisting the arguments of evil he successfully met every material or physical claim as it presented itself to him, by making a complete and effective denial of mortal belief? But even after this victory the tempter was yet able to make its voice heard in three suggestions: "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread;" "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down [from a pinnacle of the temple];" and, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

To one student of Christian Science these three suggestions seemed to indicate three diverse temptations: the first suggested to Jesus that he use his divine knowledge and power to satisfy seemingly normal physical requirements; the second, that he use his knowledge and power as a means of parading these; the third, that he use his knowledge and power as a means of gaining temporal power and possessions. Do not students of Christian Science, sincerely endeavoring to follow Jesus' footsteps, frequently have these same suggestions to meet, either for themselves or on behalf of others?

Is it not possible, moreover, to read within these words a far more subtle suggestion, embodied in the little word "if"? In other words, was the temptation not something more than the obvious suggestion to use his divine power for selfish ends? Was it not essentially designed to make him doubt his divine sonship, to discredit the revelation of his true relationship to God? "If thou be the Son of God"!

Does not the student of Christian Science find this temptation one that frequently recurs in various forms? Through the truth as taught in the Bible and our textbook we gain, at first in theory, and then to an increasing extent in practice, some grasp of the grand realities of being,—the allness of God, the at-one-ment of man with the divine Father-Mother, —and discern the consequent nothingness of evil. But the revelation of Truth, coming gradually to our consciousness, does not instantaneously eliminate from our experience all the phases and beliefs of so-called mortal mind which so far have held sway over us. Therefore, we may still hear the suggestion to doubt man's sonship with God.

It may be noted that Jesus did not argue with the tempter, but immediately rejected each new form of evil suggestion. Exercising his divine authority, the authority of his knowledge of true being, he refused to be mesmerized by evil and gave the command, "Get thee hence." The temptation then ceased, "and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him;" that is, his every need was seen to be fully supplied spiritually. Thus he finally rejected every suggestion that he should look to, depend upon, or believe in aught save God.

In Christian Science we learn to reject evil suggestions through the understanding of the truth. A summary dismissal of error, a definite turning away from material thinking, is a vital necessity in destroying the false claims presented to us. As the sons of God we have the authority and power to dismiss evil belief as unreal. And in the degree that we actually realize man's spiritual at-one-ment with God, we are enabled to make this dismissal effective.

We do not require any material manifestation in order to prove the eternal fact of man's divine sonship. If, as sometimes occurs, discord presents itself to us in the form of sickness, want, or fear, our realization of the truth of the allness of God and the consequent nothingness of evil may, by destroying the claim of error, seem to be doing something in matter. In fact, however, spiritual realization is the ministering of "angels," defined, in part, by Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 581) as "God's thoughts passing to man." These angels—spiritual thoughts—prove the nothingness of evil, or sin, sickness, lack, fear, and death, and reveal the presence of harmony, heaven.

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