Article January 4, 1941 Issue

"Contending persistently for truth"

EDITH BAILEY

THE joy, peace, and freedom experienced through Christian Science come from the understanding of God's supremacy and of the ever-presence of good. In proportion to our trust in and assurance of the power of good, do we let go the belief in evil.

According to John's Gospel, Christ Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Christian Science teaches us how to make practical use of the truth we know. The starting point for right thinking is the allness of God. He is the creator of all, and there is no other cause or creator. It is recorded in Genesis that He made everything that is made, and it is "very good." That which is not good, not having been made by God, has no real existence. The truth which Jesus said we "shall know" concerns the reality of being, namely, perfect God and a perfect universe, including man. The only fact about error is that it is unreal. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, states this clearly in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she says (p. 297), "The only fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dissolution."

The truth which we are to know is the opposite of the falsity which the material senses present. For example, if we are confronted by discord, the truth we must know is that harmony is real and is present now. God's law governs His creation in perfect harmony. Man in God's likeness expresses harmony and perfection. If this is ever true, it is always true. The realization of this truth silences the false sense of discord. But mortal mind would hold thought to the testimony of material sense and continue in the dream of error. Our Leader gives us this assurance (ibid., p. 400): "By lifting thought above error, or disease, and contending persistently for truth, you destroy error." Thought lifted above error no longer accepts the illusion, and in such thought lie one's protection and the proof of the nothingness of error.

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