In Christian Science, sickness and sin may both be dealt with as temptation. The temptation which comes to us as reality and power and our response to that temptation are what we know to be animal magnetism.

The following may serve as an illustration. In the grounds behind a family's house there was a large birdhouse occupied by a flock of martins. This birdhouse was situated high on a pole and was so constructed as to be secure against attack by a cat or other marauder. The family also had a pet cat that liked to go back into the higher grass and there catch martins. He would lie down in the tall grass and slowly wave his tail back and forth. The birds became disturbed, and through curiosity or anger would fly down at the waving tail of the cat, whereupon the cat with ready paw would catch an unwary bird right out of the air.

The foolish bird had given up its natural security, safety, and freedom to go down to the cat's tail. The bird need not have been troubled with the cat had it just gone about its business of being a martin and soared into the air. In its natural pursuit it would have been safe and happy. No doubt, too, the cat would have ceased to tantalize the birds if they had not responded.

Of itself the cat's tail had no power, but as the birds let the action of the waving tail attract, interest, or annoy them and as they responded by going to the tail, they got into trouble. This has served the writer as an illustration of animal magnetism. On many occasions when other people seemed irritated or perhaps impatient, she has been saved from responding to the irritation by remembering the cat's tail and the birds.

Sickness can sometimes seem to be a cat's tail to us. Perhaps it comes into thought as we see someone else suffering, or as we recall some experience of our own in the past. Dishonesty, selfishness, lack, impatience, a sense of hurry, criticism, or even the attitude of another may seem to lure us into expressing error. Whereas we must know that right where the error seems to be, God's truth is, and we must respond only to that truth.

In the nineteenth chapter of I Kings we read that Elijah fled from the wrath of Jezebel the queen after he had responded angrily to the idolatry of the people by killing the prophets of Baal. While Elijah was hiding in a cave, the word of the Lord came to him and bade him (verse 11), "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord." There passed before him the so-called fury of nature—wind, earthquake, and fire. But in each case Elijah apparently saw that God, real power, was not in these elements. Elijah was thereby enabled to look away from matter and material means as power and heard the still small voice that followed.

We need to give specific answer to every manifestation of mortal mind and declare that God is not in it; power is not in it. Then we shall be ready to know, hear, and recognize the still small voice of Truth, God's directing, which at first seems a small voice to human thinking.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 484), "Animal magnetism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error in all its forms; it is the human antipode of divine Science." Our Leader has given the name animal magnetism to error in all of its phases. This name serves as a useful tool with which the student of Christian Science can impersonalize evil or error, call error by its proper name, and refuse to give it power or place in his thinking or in his experience.

The intent of animal magnetism is to attract human thought to materiality and to hold it there through love of matter or the hate of it, or through fear, irritation, or even mere interest and curiosity. But the ever-present counterfact is spiritual attraction. Christ Jesus said (John 12:32), "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." The Master showed us that this uplifted sense is the true answer to error of all kinds. He said also (John 14:30), "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."

In Genesis we find the seeming opposite of good, or animal magnetism, depicted as a talking serpent, who is tempting mortals. In turn, the mortals are pictured as listening to the serpent's false directions and following them. Throughout the Bible we read of warfare with sin and fear. But there is always the thread of spiritual understanding, prophecy, and love for good woven through the experiences of those who look to God. In Revelation, the error has grown in mortal thought to the proportion of a dragon doing battle with the divine idea, until it is cast out, and its place is no more.

Christian Science defines both serpent and red dragon as animal magnetism. Mrs. Eddy discloses the fabulous nature of error or evil in the same way in which the Bible presents it. The fact always remains that "Truth and Love prevail against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with them" (Science and Health, p. 567). Evil or its embodiment actually has no power.

The law of good is not accidental; it is divinely natural. It is the law of God, Principle, and the law governing man. This law of God is never touched by the beliefs of chance or change. When we are imbued with a sense of Principle, error holds no attraction for us and is seen as having no reality. Principle is ever present and complete. Principle constitutes and governs the relations of all ideas. A relationship, if it exists at all, does so under the jurisdiction and government of Principle. Under this government, one idea cannot hinder or irritate another, nor can one idea oppose another or impose upon another. There is neither impostor nor imposition in God's kingdom. Harmony reigns therein.

Error's action, voluntary or involuntary, is only the counterfeit of the action of the divine Mind. In reality all action has its source in God; therefore there can be no inadequate action and no overaction. If action is not Mind-action, it is only a counterfeit—nothing claiming to get our attention as something. Such action is really not action at all, because it has no real cause and no effect.

The only true power is that which emanates from God. God is Truth, and Truth knows no error. Whether the error argues as a talking serpent or whether its proportions seem to be that of a dragon, error still is false and a counterfeit, unreal and actually untrue. When we listen to such a talking serpent, we are giving heed to a fabulous creature that has only the power we give to it. It is not the truth, nor does it have any existence in or relation to Truth, God. Each individual is endowed with the ability to know the truth and be free.

When faced with sin or sickness, if we know Love's allness, all-power, and presence and hold to these facts, we experience healing. There may be no need of arguing. But if we do argue with sin or sickness we must argue correctly, with the basic understanding of God's all-power and the powerlessness of evil. Love for everyone and for all that is true elevates thought to the awareness of God with us.

Our revered Leader says in the second verse of her poem entitled

"The Mother's Evening Prayer" (Poems, p. 4),