Equipment

Evelyn F. Heywood

In observation and in knowledge, in counsel and in prayer, men desire the equipment which will enable them to live their lives successfully. Many believe that the safest equipment against the world's dangers and the surest guarantee of power lie in material accumulation; others, with nobler motives and profounder reliance, know that primarily these must be sought and preserved in spiritual values.

Christ Jesus, the greatest of all educationalists and guardians of men's rights, seeking always to arm his disciples against any flagrant or subtle attack of evil, delivered this eternal, universal message to his followers: "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

These words understood and acted upon would be a complete equipment against every phase of evil, a forever assurance against fear of any kind. They constitute in fact "the whole armour of God," of which Paul wrote in his epistle to the Ephesians. This gift of God which Christ Jesus brought to the world, is the apprehension and utilization of divine law, whereby sin and sickness are seen to be powerless because men are equipped with that which is spiritually adequate to handle and eliminate every phase of evil. It was this equipment which the Master sought to give his disciples by a presentation of man's spiritual selfhood, ever one with the Father, offsetting all spurious laws, all false testimony, restoring health and harmony and casting our fear. In this final assurnace of spiritual being, men become aware not merely of God's protecting presence and of a sense of deliverance, but of the fact that they have within themselves the consciousness and evidence of divine power; when this place is reached even a belief in the possiblity of danger is overcome.

It was this whole armor of God that was presented to the boasting Pilate, who believed that he had it within his jurisdiction to condemn or reprieve the human Jesus. "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above," must always be the sublime answer of Truth's witness to every effort to usurp justice and pass false sentence.

Throughout her writings, Mary Baker Eddy leaves the reader in no doubt that the ability to tread on all the power of the enemy does not come to him who is concerned half-heartedly or intermittently with his spiritual equipment. The efficacy of the power wielded by Jesus lay in his understanding that good is supreme, and that man is conscious of this fact. The testimony of disease, of limitation, of sin, of death confronted him continually. It was because he was equipped with the discernment which recognizes them as unreal that he brought salvation and healing.

The most aggressive despotism claiming to be able to victimize and even destroy life is rendered impotent in the face of such sublime spiritual knowing. In words such as the following did our Leader sum up the whole import of her discovery of the Science of Christianity and its profound practical value to mankind: "The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 288).

In the midst of ruthlessness and violence, threatened with disease and disaster, confronted by their own inadequacies or mesmeric fears, men believe themselves ill-equipped or often wholly defenseless in the human battle for existence. They look everywhere except to God for refuge and relief, seeking those remedies and reinforcements which might bring deliverance or at least alleviation. Often obstinately unwilling are they to learn that in no human form of equipment, whether physical or mental, whether in the confidence inspired by wealth or numbers, of tradition or achievement, does permanent safety lie.

Jesus was the Way-shower because he knew and proved that good is supreme, and he gave t his followers the same power. None has more indisputable right to speak with conviction and authority on the subject of this divine gift to men than our Leader. Again and again, with renewed courage and faith in God, she proved how invincible was the power she wielded to establish the Cause of Christian Science with its evidence of Spirit's supremacy.

As the result of her own faith and understanding, in confirmation of her own unparalleled experience, she could write: "Whatever envy, hatred, revenge—the most remorseless motives that govern mortal mind—whatever these try to do, shall 'work together for good to them that love God.' Why? Because He has called His own, armed them, equipped them, and furnished them defenses impregnable" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 10). It is because the Christian Scientist knows that he has this gift from God, this spiritual equipment, that he can set forth not affrighted by the seeming force and fury of this suppositional warfare, but confident and serene in the consciousness of that divine power wherein is all safety and permanence.

Evelyn F. Heywood

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