Article January 27, 1940 Issue

Spiritual Defense

ROBERT ELLIS KEY

Christ Jesus was a man of peace. He never advocated the use of physical force as a means of settling conflicts, nor did he use the world's weapons in his warfare against error. In the garden of Gethsemane, immediately before his arrest by the emissaries of Caiaphas, he rebuked Peter for his resort to physical force as a means of defense. When the impulsive disciple drew a sword and cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest, Jesus healed the afflicted man instantaneously.

Although the Master rebuked Peter, he did not leave the matter unsupported, but went on to remind him of the spiritual defense upon which he himself could call, had he the wish to do so. "Thinkest thou," he said, "that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" On page 581 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the word "angels" is defined as follows: "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." It is clear from this definition that the legions of angels to which our Master referred must be the spiritual intuitions, the pure thoughts from God, which abound in the consciousness of the spiritually-minded.

Again and again during his brief but eventful pilgrimage on earth, Christ Jesus experienced protection from the evil designs of his enemies. It will be recalled how on one occasion the people in a synagogue, enraged by Jesus' poignant but well-merited rebuke, thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of a hill, intending to cast him down headlong. "But," adds the Scripture, "he passing through the midst of them went his way, and came down to Capernaum." On this occasion Jesus utilized a spiritual means of defense unknown to his persecutors. He entertained "angels," and these delivered him from his adversaries. Again, in the thirteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, it is recorded that the Pharisees came to Jesus with the suggestion that he should leave their country because Herod, the king, intended to take his life. This threat did not move the Master from his purpose of ministering to the sick and sinful. His mission had been entrusted to him by the Father, and he knew that this work could not be hindered by a wicked king. "Go ye," he said, "and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected."

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