Editorial June 22, 1963 Issue

Impersonal Conflict

Helen Wood Bauman

Christian Science lifts its adherents above a sense of personal conflict, or conflict with persons, and makes them realize that the only conflict is between error and Truth, the flesh and Spirit, material sense and Soul, or God. Christ Jesus often called the material sense of life the world, and he made a clear distinction between the world and the realm of Spirit. He said (John 18:36), "My kingdom is not of this world." And, showing his disciples the impersonal nature of the work before them, he said (John 15:18), "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."

The individual who has risen to the altitude of scientific understanding of the struggle between the world, or worldliness, and Spirit takes no pleasure in jabbing persons with sharp words. He knows that the issues involved are more important than appear on the surface, and he is dedicated to proving the power of Truth over error. If an explanation or rebuke is needed in order to cause discreditable thinking to see its own nothingness, this will be carried out in the spirit of charity and not of scorn or personal superiority.

Mary Baker Eddy ascribes a high altitude of thought to the new birth which comes to those who are awaking through Christian Science to discern the true idea of God and man. She says in her article "The New Birth" in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 16, 17): "Here you stand face to face with the laws of infinite Spirit, and behold for the first time the irresistible conflict between the flesh and Spirit. You stand before the awful detonations of Sinai. You hear and record the thunderings of the spiritual law of Life, as opposed to the material law of death; the spiritual law of Love, as opposed to the material sense of love; the law of omnipotent harmony and good, as opposed to any supposititious law of sin, sickness, or death."

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