Article December 22, 1951 Issue

ON ALERTNESS TO DUTY

PERCY C. MC CHESNEY

"It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged,—and justified or condemned," writes Mary Baker Eddy in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 6). This By-Law applies specifically to every member of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, but others who desire may use it also. It also has significant value for students of Christian Science who have not yet become members of The Mother Church but who seek to understand the teachings of this Science and desire to apply them in daily living.

When understood and applied, this By-Law enables the Scientist to express the authority inherent in man's reflection of the divine Mind so that he can exercise righteous judgment and maintain perfect order of thought and action. At the outset it is necessary to know what obedience to this By-Law entails and then to obey it. To one student the meaning of defending oneself unfolded as being always alert to one's true selfhood, the man God creates, sustains, and maintains. This student saw that he must be much more than casually interested in man, God's perfect reflection. He must be vigorously concerned with him, recognizing as true in himself and others only the qualities of God-likeness and man's potentialities.

In defending himself, the Christian Scientist takes a definite position against aggressive mental suggestion. He is righteously determined that neither error in statement nor error in effect shall touch him, because he is determined to live and move and have his being at all times and under all circumstances as a witness to the truth that God's man has dominion and is upright, perfect, and divinely intelligent. He knows that this caliber of thinking and acting must be consistently maintained. There is no time when man is less than the man God created, and the understanding of man's being is one's highest defense against any mental suggestion to the contrary, however aggressive it may seem to be.

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