With some evident understanding of the so-called carnal or mortal mind and the limits to which it may go in evil activity, the prophet Jeremiah wrote (17:9), "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" But he added, "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." As Christian Scientists we recognize that we are living in a period of great moral chemicalization. The leaven of the Christ, Truth, as revealed to Mary Baker Eddy is acting upon false material belief. To human sense it appears in one's experience as a process of cleansing and purification.

In this process of change, in which all error must give way to Truth, the false claim of mind and existence as material is being stirred to its depths. The light of Truth is forcing latent evil to the surface in order that it may be seen for the lie it truly is and destroyed, even as we read in Luke's Gospel (12:2, 3): "There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."

Realizing the upheaval which the Christ, Truth, as revealed in Christian Science would bring to pass, and understanding its purifying effect, Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 540): "In Isaiah we read: 'I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things;' but the prophet referred to divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its utmost, when bringing it to the surface and reducing it to its common denominator. nothingness. The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin."

Humanity perhaps has never fully realized the depths of mortal wickedness and the purpose of the supposititious claim of evil to hold the human race in the fetters of sin and vice. Greed and avarice would despoil and destroy even the youth of our nations. The uncovering of crime, however, enables us to understand evil's intention and through spiritual understanding intelligently dispose of it. We should therefore be grateful that Truth's light is exposing every phase of mortal mind's false claim to power and reality and enabling us to prove that no matter what form it may take, it is a baseless lie, without cause, substance, or law.

Unmasking evil's pretensions, Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 102): "The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. The looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on the subject which the criminal desires." And she further adds: "Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore in the community."

The alert student of Christian Science, recognizing the criminal intent of the carnal mortal mind, also realizes that he has been presented, because of Christian Science. with certain spiritual obligations to his brother man. Observant of our Leader's comments regarding the apathy and mental indolence which the criminal mind would induce, he is aroused and awakened to his moral and civic responsibilities.

A Christian Scientist cannot and would not permit an epidemic of disease to go on unchecked in thought. He understands that this projected mental picture of fear and contagion must be seen for what it is—a lie, a denial of God's being. He knows that contagion is a false belief, and that it cannot operate as law. His understanding and maintenance of God's allness and the perfection of His infinite being will lift the fear and belief of epidemic and restore harmony in the human experience. In this way the understanding of the Christ destroys the false beliefs of disease entertained by mankind.

In like manner it is our privilege and duty both as Scientists and as citizens to handle spiritually and scientifically the aggravated evidene of crime continuously presented to us through the press, the radio, and even television. Can the uncovering of error's wickedness he ignored? Because it does not reach into our own family circle or personal life, is the activity and continuation of crime any less important to those who love good and respect obedience to law? Understanding and demonstrating the activity of divine law, Mrs. Eddy also appreciated obedience to human law, to all law that reflects justice and righteousness in civic and national governments.

In Christian Science, God's man is not condemned, but evil must always face the condemnation and destruction which Truth inevitably brings to it. Christian Science teaches us to see that mortal mind is the origin of both the crime and the criminal. The mental assassin is always mortal mind, the belief in a power and mind apart from God. Mortal man is always the victim, even he who is actuated by criminal thought.

The compassion of divine Love impels us to love and know as the Master did. Love knows only the perfection of its own expression, man. It knows and conceives man only as the reflection of righteousness, purity, and good. The Christian Scientist knows that in the realm of God's being there is no criminal impulse or motive, no evil intent, no will or power to sin. Because divine Mind is the only Mind, in truth man has no mind apart from God. He does not possess a mind capable of conceiving or originating crime.

Christian Science therefore strikes at the root of crime and evil motive, which is always mortal mind, the lie and the father of the lie. Love's omnipresence and omnipotence, demonstrated, dissipate the illusion and resolve evil into its native nothingness. Crime must be seen as an impersonal imposition on mankind. Its penalty is its own destruction, but not the destruction of man. "For. behold," writes the prophet (Mal. 4:1, 2), "the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings."

In her textbook the revelator of Christian Science describes the moral ferment of evil, but she also prophesies that the spiritual knowing of those who have approximated the understanding of this Science will annihilate the activity of evil, restrain and dissipate the criminal impulsions of mortal mind, and eventually demonstrate the reality of God's infinite, all-harmonious being. On page 96 of the textbookshe writes: "Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless." Farther on she says: "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection."

Richard J. Davis