Editorial March 16, 1935 Issue

Public Enemies

W. Stuart Booth

Department of Justice officials in the United States have recently designated certain criminals as public enemies and have numbered them according to the heinousness of their crimes. When he who was the first to be regarded as public enemy number one had been disposed of, another was given that unsavory designation, and this has continued until several have been so marked. It is obvious, therefore, that the actual culprit—public enemy number one—has not been apprehended and restrained. In effect it is somewhat as though a captured thief had slipped out of his coat which was in the grasp of his captor; directly, the criminal has appeared under another cloak only to have the process repeated.

This condition concerns every Christian Scientist because of Mrs. Eddy's clear designation of their privilege and duty in this connection. On pages 96 and 97 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in writing of the mental fermentation which has even now begun in the world thought, she states: "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." Evidently those who discern God's law are expected to be peace officers in the highest sense, for through their understanding of the omnipotence of God, divine Principle, and the consequent impotence of evil, they are to deal with the thought conditions which lie back of and impel lawlessness and crime.

In all things Christian Scientists look to Christ Jesus as the Exemplar, the Way-shower, that they may see what to do and how to do it—how to think, speak, and act. Consideration of the words and works of the Master, in the light of Christian Science, leads to the conclusion that he thought from the spiritual premise of God as the only Father or creator of man and of all that is real. He was the premier proponent of the fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. He not only knew the truth about God and the universe, including man, but was acquainted also with the illusive nature, delusive arguments, and subtle methods of error—of the carnal or mortal mind. Thus the Master was able to expose evil as false and thwart its machinations; thus he was empowered to forgive sin by destroying it and thereby free the erstwhile sinner.

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