Article August 9, 1947 Issue

WITH WHOM SHALL WE AGREE?

THELMA O. LEATON

In the Sermon on the Mount our beloved Master, Christ Jesus, admonishes us (Matt. 5:25), "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison." Then he adds, "Verily I say unto thee. Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."

Who or what is the adversary with whom we are to agree quickly? "Adversary" is defined as "one turned against another or others with a design to oppose or resist him or them; an opponent; ... an enemy; foe." The word thus ranges in meaning all the way from passive disagreement to active hostility. Christian Science reveals that there is and can be no opposite to good, God; to Life, Truth, and Love. Therefore the adversary is hypothetical, an illusion, a myth, a misstatement, instead of a fact. It is an aggressive mental suggestion arguing to the human thought that evil is as real as good. We must know that the so-called foe or adversary is but an error of belief, and that this belief is only in the thought which believes it. Man— the image of God, the perfect One —cannot be deceived or mesmerized into believing in its pretensions of reality.

"Agree" is defined by Webster in part as "to come to terms or to a common understanding," and this throws light upon what is meant by agreeing with the adversary. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 390), " 'Agree to disagree' with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consumption, or smallpox." She adds (pp. 390, 391), "Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit."