Editorial February 4, 1939 Issue

"And he will flee from you"

Violet Ker Seymer

The Apostle James wrote: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Broadly speaking, yielding to temptation takes two forms: deliberately thinking and doing what is wrong, or failing to translate good resolutions into right actions. Temptation must be resisted in both thought and deed, and "the devil" flees before one who is obedient to divine Principle. Steadfast vigilance, braced by diligent practice, is surely blessed.

The injunction, "Cease to do evil; learn to do well." calls for our obedience in big and little ways. The tendency to get up late, for instance, in spite of a professed intention to rise early and greet the new day with eager study, new inspiration, fresh resolves, spiritual heights of communion with the one Mind, will not beguile us, provided we denounce this tendency in thought and renounce it in action. Weak acquiescence in the line of least resistance flees before vigorous obedience to spiritual demands. Purposeful energy characterizes true consciousness.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 86): "There is but one way of doing good, and that is to do it! There is but one way of being good, and that is to be good!" Being and doing good are synonymous, since all that is truly good expresses Mind's unsuspended action. Scientifically, there is but one power, one presence, one influence, one attraction: that of God, good. The consciousness of true being is the only true consciousness. We avoid mental detours and superstitious involvements by knowing that for man, Mind's idea, divergence from divine Principle is an impossibility. The consciousness of man is controlled by divine Principle and all that term includes.

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