Editorial August 5, 1944 Issue

Are We Standing Watch?

John Randall Dunn

It is interesting to note that the word "watch" as it appears in the New Testament carries in the original Greek the sense of not sleeping, of keeping awake. Christ Jesus therefore in his often quoted admonition, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch," is really commending to his followers that valuable, yes, indispensable quality of mental alertness, if they would enter and remain in the kingdom of harmony.

Today, with the world on fire, the need for wide-awake mental watchmen was never more evident. And right here may a word of caution be addressed to those whose sons, husbands, brothers, and friends are serving in distant lands in the armed forces? This is no time to relax, or let down in your watchfulness and prayers for your loved ones. Possibly you have thought that this young man or that young woman who is an earnest student of Christian Science will be able to call upon a Wartime Minister or a Christian Science chaplain should a need arise for metaphysical aid. True, this may and does happen many times in camps in the United States and in Great Britain, and in some regiments abroad fortunate enough to have a Christian Science chaplain in their midst; but we should not be asleep to the necessity of standing watch daily, and doing sacred mental work for the tens of thousands of our young crusaders who rely on Christian Science in times of need, and who may find themselves temporarily cut off from brethren who understand and speak the new tongue of spiritual sense.

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 133): "Three times a day, I retire to seek the divine blessing on the sick and sorrowing, with my face toward the Jerusalem of Love and Truth, in silent prayer to the Father which 'seeth in secret,' and with childlike confidence that He will reward 'openly.' In the midst of depressing care and labor I turn constantly to divine Love for guidance, and find rest." What veritable walls of salvation and strength would be erected between our loved ones and such enemies as disease, wounds, and all the unlovely vicissitudes of war, if thousands of Christian Scientists were emulating their Leader in having definite periods of prayer thrice daily!

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