In his second letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul made clear the necessity for those who had accepted the teachings of Christ Jesus to go apart from the materially-minded, from those still bound in sinful pleasure, in order the better to exemplify the fruits of the Master's mission. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing," he admonished them.

The necessity for the disciples of Truth to keep from the contamination which would result from intimate association with the less spiritually-minded was also voiced by the prophet Isaiah: "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." The Revelator expressed the same necessity in these words: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

Christ Jesus, likewise in terms tender, compassionate, and sweet with humility, petitioned the Father on behalf of his faithful disciples, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." The Nazarene was keenly alive to the need for his disciples to refrain from material indulgences in order that they might become the torch-bearers of Truth to suffering humanity; and he sought this separation for them, not with the expectation that they would escape temptation by going apart from their fellows, but rather that, while being in the world and taking part in its activities, they should gain and hold spiriutal concepts in the degree that would keep them above the plane of those who were thinking and living in terms of materiality. Christian Scientists, no less than the early Christians, face the necessity of keeping "from the evil" while yet daily mingling with those whose thoughts are still untouched by the blessed evangel of Truth.

The problem may not, to human sense, be easy of solution; yet our beloved Leader has made clear to her students that only by rising above matter-beliefs, by gaining a sense of existence as spiritual and holding it, does one obey the precepts of the Founder of Christianity. In definite terms Mrs. Eddy states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 14), "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth." The necessity is clearly set forth to leave, mentally, the material sense of existence, in order to gain the true understanding of God as divine Life, and to attain and exercise the dominion which God gave to man, and which, be it said, man has never surrendered. What could be more important to mortals than to observe and practice this admonition, whereby they will gain eternal life and lose nothing of value?

That one may incur the criticism or disapproval of his fellows through his efforts to obey the precepts of Christ Jesus should in no wise deter him from seeking and pursuing the right course. It has ever been thus. Yet the reward of the righteous has been commensurate to their fidelity; and no one has ever lost, through the pursuit of spiritual understanding, a scintilia of that which is really desirable. Our Leader well knew the tendency of mortal mind to judge hastily those seeking the higher course; and she voices it in these words on page 238 of Science and Health: "'Come out from among them, and be ye separate,' is to incur society's frown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one to be Christian."

Mrs. Eddy, from the fullness of her own experience, could bear testimony to the blessedness which, despite the protestations of error, accompanies Christian living. To win and wear the crown through rising above sensuous experience is the blessed privilege of every true disciple. That the battle, to human sense, is not easy makes it none the less necessary to carry it on. Though the temptation to indulge worldly ways—the ways of the flesh—often assails us, protection is at hand equal to our need. Temptation often seems to speak with a siren's voice, and its lure abounds with what to the senses appear like pleasant possibilities; and sometimes, apparently, the tempter is not met by a firm denial and a withering "Get thee behind me, Satan," but rather by a weak indulgence of that hackneyed excuse, "Suffer it to be so now."

In this mistaken interpretation of the words of our Lord is found a pretext to go the way of the pleasurable senses, on the ground that such indulgence is but a justifiable phase of human experience. If he who should so yield would awaken to the fact that every step in the wrong direction must be retraced, that every evil indulged, or even accepted in one's consciousness, has sometime and somewhere to be squarely faced and destroyed, as Mrs. Eddy has so definitely set forth, by suffering or by Science, he would proceed in that direction with great caution. But we have always the promise of righteous reward for faithful observance of Love's demands. Being separate from evil in every from is not a hardship, but the way to the Father's house, where abide lasting joy and an infinitude of blessings.

Albert F. Gilmore.