Editorial November 30, 1940 Issue

"The spirit of counsel"

Evelyn F. Heywood

"The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 379 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." No decision, however vast its import and profoundly complicated its nature, involving men, continents, and oceans, is outside the government of Mind, is incapable of being brought into conformity with spiritual law and justice for the benefit of the race and the glory of God.

The prophets of the Old Testament from Moses to Malachi, seeking to guide, discipline, and inspire their people, ceased not to warn and exhort them of the dangers which befall those who take counsel of men rather than of God. "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit," we read in the thirtieth chapter of Isaiah. In such words did the spiritual seer point out of the people not only the unrighteousness, but the dire menace, of accepting human rather than divine wisdom and strength for their guidance and their safety.

Human counsel urges men to reach out and seek alignment with or complete submission to material might and wisdom; it argues that defiance of that which the world regards as power is not only foolish, it is hopeless. Physical laws, mortal evidence, everywhere bear witness to the ability of evil to accomplish its purpose in the terrorizing and victimizing of those who rebel against its decrees and ignore its rulings. Only within the sanctuary of Spirit, where men take counsel of God, where the undermining, devitalizing arguments of error are resolutely set aside, does the individual learn that danger lies not in defiance of, but in submission to evil; only there does he learn, in humble waiting upon God, to discern between that which is the divine will and the will of mortals.

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