Annulling the "bland denial of Truth"

HAROLD S. EAGLE

"MENTAL malpractice is a bland denial of Truth," states Mrs. Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 31). A dictionary defines "bland" as "affable in manner; suave." Animal magnetism, the term used to cover all the seeming operations of evil, often appears to operate through malpractice, as bland, but nevertheless erroneous, suggestion. For example, "a bland denial of Truth" would attempt to make the Christian Scientist believe that he does not understand Christian Science, that he is a failure, or that he is discouraged. To one who is earnestly striving to be good it may suggest that happiness can be found only in worldly pleasures and the gratification of false appetites. If heeded, the "bland denial of Truth" would destroy one's usefulness, but with alert resistance its purpose is defeated.

Paul exposed the machinations of error when he asserted, "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." He also indicated that malpractice claims to operate through law. He wrote, "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me." But evil has no law by which it can operate, since the law of God, infinite good, is the only law governing man and the universe. Furthermore, evil is mindless, since God is the only Mind.

Man reflects Mind, and is governed by Mind's law. It is therefore man's prerogative to be self-governed. One with this knowledge can prove his dominion over every claim of evil, whether it seem to be malicious, ignorant, hidden, or obvious. Mrs. Eddy very definitely tells Christian Scientists to assert their dominion over evil's claim to power when she exhorts in the last paragraph of the chapter "Christian Science Practice," in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 442), "Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake." Alertness and awareness are qualities of divine Mind which belong to every man by reflection. These spiritual qualities detect the tares of malpractice and separate them from the wheat of right thinking. It is obvious that when one is made to forget or to neglect his duty in any direction he is not being a law to himself, but is allowing himself to come under the machinations of supposititious animal magnetism.

A phase of "bland denial of Truth" is today operating openly and flamboyantly through newspaper, radio, and billboard advertising in an endeavor to make more liquor drinkers and more tobacco users. People who at one time would have resisted yielding to degrading appetites are being lulled into believing that indulgence in these is a harmless social pastime, and that anyone who thinks otherwise is oldfashioned and narrow-minded. But the vices of using tobacco and drinking alcoholic beverages have not changed into virtues simply because mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, are indulging in these practices. Today, as never before, evil is feeling the power of Truth, and is being stirred to the utmost and exposed. False appetites, mad ambition, lust for power, lust of the flesh, hatred, jealousy, revenge, with all the etceteras of evil, are coming to the surface to be destroyed by Christian Science.

Man, the real man, cannot be allured, enticed, or victimized by error's bland denial, because man reflects Truth and is obedient to it. Man is God-governed, God-controlled, and God-loved. Everyone equipped with this knowledge has an invulnerable and ever-available defense against every suggestion of animal magnetism. Our Leader writes, "Goodness involuntarily resists evil" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210). Goodness is a quality of divine Mind. It is not a personal characteristic of a few or many. It belongs to everyone by reason of his relationship to God. Man reflects God's goodness, which is infinite, eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniactive. At all times and under all circumstances one can claim the strength and protection of divine goodness, and manifest them.

When one is convinced of the allness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil, he can convince others also. When one is convinced that evil passions and false appetites afford no pleasure, he can convince others of this fact. When one gains through Christian Science a love of true goodness, he learns that man is under the law of Love—has always been, and forever will be.

"Be true and list the voice within,
Be true unto thy high ideal,
Thy perfect self, that knows no sin,
That self that is the only real."

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