"When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explanation which destroys error," we read on page 452 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. To allow any form of error to grow upon thought or to fail to refute the false arguments of mortal mind is to be in danger of becoming convinced of error's reality.

Sometimes if we agree with the error confronting us in the form of false accusations or unwarranted condemnation or if we let it go unrebuked mentally, our ability to defend ourselves is weakened. The evil purpose of an aggressive charge or allegation is invariably defeated if the accusation is promptly denied and the true fact of man's spiritual perfection, as revealed by Christian Science, is persistently affirmed.

If our thought is disturbed or troubled over any circumstance, is it not because, consciously or unconsciously, we have permitted an erroneous suggestion to encroach upon our consciousness and assume an appearance of reality? Whether the circumstance concerns oneself or is something beyond one's personal environment, the remedy is equally important and equally effective.

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, gives us a useful hint as to the method by which every Christian Scientist can prepare his thought for the necessary work of rebuking and destroying error. In "Miscellaneous Writings" she says of Science and Health" (p. 92): "The teacher of Christian Science needs continually to study this textbook. His work is to replenish thought, and to spiritualize human life, from this open fount of Truth and Love." Through such study we too shall be prepared, as Christ Jesus was, to meet every untoward circumstance with the truth.

In Christian Science, no matter how dark a situation may be, the clouds begin to break and the deceptive nature of evil gives place to harmony when we are ready to reverse the material picture and to lift our thought into the pure consciousness of God's allness and ever-presence and of man's inseparability from His presence and power.

Study of the Bible and our Leader's writings in connection with the solution of a specific problem has an inspiring and stimulating effect which must be experienced in order to be fully understood. This inspiration is immediately effective in removing the depressing influence of acquiescence in the supposed reality of evil, and this is the first and often the final step in its destruction.

A rather simple illustration of this point came to the writer a number of years ago. He had accepted a new position and had entered upon his duties before his references had been completely checked. One day he was called to the office of an important executive who showed him a letter containing an unfavorable reply from a former employer to whom an inquiry had been directed.

Although the statements in the letter were untrue and malicious in nature, the writer did not know immediately how to disprove the accusation. Accordingly, he replied briefly and asked for twenty-four hours in which to get evidence needed to refute the statements.

That day he spent his noon hour in a nearby Christian Science Reading Room in thoughtful study. The word "unimpeachable" kept coming to him, although at that time he was not aware of any special significance attached to it. Following this leading, however, he looked up the word in the Concordance to Science and Health. The only citation was this pertinent passage (p. 414): "Remember that man's perfection is real and unimpeachable, whereas imperfection is blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divine Love."

This message was all the writer needed. The burden was immediately lifted, and he felt a sense of confidence and dominion. That evening, while browsing through some business papers at home, he ran across a letter of recommendation written some years before at the time of termination of the former employment. When this letter was presented to his superior officer, its contents were found to be so contradictory to the statements made in the more recent letter he had received that the latter was immediately stamped as unreliable and irresponsible. The writer's explanation was accepted at once, and the incident closed without prejudice to him.

As a result of this experience the above passage from Science and Health has stood out for many years as illuminated by spiritual understanding, together with the verse from Malachi (3:11), "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground."

We read in Revelation (12:10): "I heard a loud voice saying in heaven. Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down."

For every false accusation of mortal mind there is an explanation of the truth in our textbooks—the Bible and Science and Health— which will destroy the seeming reality of the accusation and render its effects null and void. The practical application of spiritual understanding then becomes a source of salvation and strength, enabling one to progress joyfully under the protection of the universal law of good, for the accuser is thereby cast down, and the accused is set free.