CONSTRUCTIVE COMBAT

Can active combat be constructive? The answer to this question is undoubtedly, "Yes!" The usual type of combat is against persons and consequently destructive. In Christian Science our active combat impersonalizes evil and deals with evil for what it is, namely, a negation. Christian Science divests evil of power, prestige, and presence, and demonstrates the allness, wholeness, and oneness of God, good. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy says (pp. 284, 285), "I am opposed to all personal attacks, and in favor of combating evil only, rather than person." This constructive form of combat, namely, the impersonalization of evil, is brought out many times in the Scriptures; for instance, in the experience of David as recorded in the Old Testament.

David was a man of war. Old Testament history indicates that he was a king who delivered Israel from some of its enemies. His mission was to be the forerunner of an era of great prosperity and peace, an era which occurred in the reign of his son and successor, Solomon.

Peace can only be established on a foundation of peaceful thinking. To engraft peace upon warlike thoughts is to increase the liability of war. If warlike elements are not eradicated, the reign of peace must be regarded as a distant event. How then could David, a man of war, be the precursor of peace?

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February 12, 1949
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