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."

If, therefore, we are to disagree with the false presentment of evil, whether in the guise of accident, disease, sin, unhappiness, death, or any other inharmony, with what are we to agree? With the opposite of the illusive error. Christian Science reveals that, because God is perfect, His creation, man, must be and is perfect, sinless, diseaseless, fearless, deathless. The only presence or power is God, the eternal Father, the ever-loving Mother. Man, as the image of Love, can only be loving; as the expression of Truth, he is ever truthful. With these divine facts we must and do agree, since they are demonstrable in daily living.

The following incident illustrates how by agreeing to disagree with the aggressive mental suggestion, while agreeing quickly with the truth of divine reality, a party of Christian Scientists averted a serious accident and demonstrated a divine fact. While they were driving on a busy highway, early one evening, a small boy rode his bicycle out of a side street directly into the path of the automobile. Immediately the occupants of the car realized that no evil could be present, since God is the only presence and power, nor could an accident be real, since it is unknown to divine perfection. One of the party, a little girl, declared aloud in childlike sincerity and utmost faith, "There is no sensation in matter." While the bicycle was completely destroyed, the child was thrown clear of the car, and upon examination by a physician was pronounced perfectly whole and sound.

The alert Christian Scientist always agrees with the facts of true being: man's spiritual sonship with the Father, with immortal Life, harmonious Love. Because he does thus agree with and recognize spiritual facts, he discerns and rebukes the errors that present themselves, and proves, as did Christ Jesus, that they and the penalties they would impose can be reversed and destroyed by knowing the spiritual facts of being. The leper, awakened by the Master's clear realization of man as spiritual, was immediately made clean. The woman having an issue of blood twelve years was healed instantly. Jesus' instant recognition of man's perfection in Science restored the life of Jairus' daughter.

Christian Scientists know that to disagree quickly with the adversary, as did Christ Jesus, and to agree with the divine facts—the perfection of God and man—removes the necessity of any payment of the uttermost farthing demanded by error. They strive ever to agree with the things of God, the truth of creation, and they accept wholeheartedly the promise (ibid., p. 391), "Then, when thou art delivered to the judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, 'Thou art whole!' "

The question of choosing with whom we shall agree is not new. Moses, centuries ago, forcefully brought the matter to the attention of his followers when he said (Deut. 30:19, 20), "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days."

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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE OPENS OUR EYES

August 9, 1947

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