Article October 5, 1940 Issue

Persistence and Authority

MAUDE F. WHITE

When our Master, Christ Jesus, was "led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil," according to the record of Matthew, he was tempted three times to believe in the reality and power of matter. The first temptation was to "command that these stones be made bread;" the second, to cast himself down from a pinnacle of the temple; and the third, to acknowledge the power of materiality, "all the kingdoms of the world." Did Jesus yield to these temptations? He did not. He persisted in giving the evil suggestions decisive answers, saying the third time with authority, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

When error of any kind seems to persist in claiming our attention, we must be even more persistent in declaring the allness of God and in denying the error, whether it calls itself sin, sorrow, sickness, poverty, or anything else that is unlike good. Every day and every hour we must know that God, good, is all the power there is. When distress of any kind seems to come to us, let us lift our thought and become conscious of good alone as real. We may be tempted to believe in evil, but we can never actually know evil, for it is impossible to know what is unreal. When error first presents itself to our thought, if we will turn to God and hold firmly to the truth, we shall find presently that the trouble has lessened or disappeared.

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 233), "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power." And on page 400 she says, "By lifting thought above error, or disease, and contending persistently for truth, you destroy error."

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