Editorial February 1, 1964 Issue

A Daily Duty

Helen Wood Bauman

The care with which Mary Baker Eddy watched over the members of her Church is constant wonder to those who recognize the wisdom she exercised. In no way did she better express her love for the members, who were to carry on her great plan of salvation for mankind, than in the By-Law entitled "Alertness to Duty" in her Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 6). It reads: "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."

While we appear humanly to live strictly with our own thoughts, we are in belief surrounded by the thoughts of millions of mortals, and unless we know how to maintain our mental integrity through prayerful metaphysical efforts, we are likely to be influenced by the frictions and fears and sins which make up the atmosphere of a materialistic world.

We need not know exactly what is producing a mental miasma, but we can deny the existence of evil on the basis of the allness and presence of divine Mind; and this will help safeguard us from the aggressive suggestion that we are subject to evils of any kind. When we do know what the specific phases of evil are that we need to defend ourselves against, we are in an even better position to do so.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Man Is the Image and Likeness of God