Article March 6, 1965 Issue

Watching for Good

REX MILLER

Both the Holy Scriptures and the writings of Mrs. Eddy abound in admonitions to be watchful. Examples from the Bible are Christ Jesus' instruction to his disciples, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41), and Paul's exhortation to the Christian community in what is now the Greek city of Salonica (I Thess. 5:6), "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."

Mrs. Eddy sounds the same note of warning in Science and Health when she writes (p. 324): "Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God is the only life." In following these admonitions, it is well for the student to remember that in Christian Science watching is a twofold operation. In the first place, the watchman must be vigilant in discovering the enemy and in warning against the approach of it. He must discern evil, but only for the purpose of destroying it by seeing its nothingness.

He also has a second function, no less important than the first, and unless he fulfills this second requirement, his work as watchman remains incomplete. It is this: he must perceive and point out the good, which is always present to overcome the evil. He must rise to a height of spiritual awareness that permits him to recognize the ever-presence of God, good, and the consequent nothingness of the apparent enemy, evil.

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