Conviction

Evelyn F. Heywood

The only unassailable conviction is that based upon spiritual knowing, proceeding from and testifying to divine Principle. None other can say with the calm assurance of the Christ, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."

Men harness their lives and consciences to maintain and prosecute set purposes, with a passion of conviction which disregards the challenge of reason, of evidence, and the consideration due to the rights of others. The power they believe is theirs has not been given to them; neither, indeed, do they actually possess it; that which they seize and precariously wield, is the counterfeit of power, based upon illusion, operation through animal magnetism, deceiving themselves and others with its semblance of authority.

Of such a nature was the hurricane force of Saul of Tarsus' persecution of the early Christians, until blind conviction in the righteousness of his purpose yielded to spiritual revelation.

Because of his gigantic intellectual and organizing ability, because of the fury of his zeal, Saul had presented a terrifying, indeed a murderous exhibition of what he believed to be his duty to God and man. The fanaticism of human will, seeking to take into its own hands the power to preserve or to destroy, is the victim no less than the victimizer in every conflict into which it enters.

For each individual, whoever, wherever he be, this false and evil dream must be broken with the spiritual conviction of its unreality. For Paul the experience was sudden, seemingly miraculous, transforming his whole nature from enmity to brotherly kindness, from revenge to the love and wisdom which are inspired of God. For such as Paul the words of Mary Baker Eddy on pages 151 and 152 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" are exactly fulfilled: "But this so-called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield to Truth. It would wield the sceptre of a monarch, but it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and saves mortal mind from itself."

To bring the light of Truth to mankind so penetratingly, so winningly, that the individual does of his "own consent yield to Truth," this is the task of the Christian Scientist. Then that must happen which happened on the way to Damascus. In the place of human arrogance and blind obduracy, there are found humility and teachableness; in the place of hatred and revenge, compassion and mercy. Throughout all ages, men influenced and impelled by their prejudices, their desires and ambitions, sometimes in positions of great influence, sometimes in the lesser circle of their own homes, have built precariously on false premises or swung meaninglessly from one conviction to another, while all the time the power which is given to each one "in heaven and in earth" was just at hand.

No one could have appeared less likely to yield to the voice of Truth of his own consent than the future Apostle to the Gentiles, "breathing out threatenings and slaughter" as he journeyed. Yet in a moment the armor of his hatred, his violence, his self-esteem was pierced; and later, in the place of the tyrant was the humble disciple. Before the gentleness and love of divine revelation all mortal clamor, all murderous methods and violent boasting, must yield. Thus, as did Paul, men can learn that they need no longer "kick against the pricks;" they can learn how mortal mind, by dropping all its supposed power and wisdom and being willing to be taught of God, can actually find salvation from itself.

The question which sprang to the lips of Paul, "Who art thou, Lord?" showed him to be at the crossroads of his career. The vital import of that question, and the response to it in wholehearted obedience, must be the deciding factor in the case of each individual. Each one can in the measure of his faithfulness find the answer in reason, in revelation, and in proof. In circumstances wholly different, yet resulting in a revelation no less dynamic, in a certainty no less infallible, than that of Paul, our beloved Leader made her great discovery, found the answer to her question, "Who art thou Lord?" She writes (Science and Health, p. 108): "Whence came to me this heavenly conviction,—a conviction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses? According to St. Paul, it was the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power.'"

In the calm, clear light of such conviction, forsaking all blind trusts and material premises, is born the courage of sole reliance on spiritual things. Thus in the ascending order of their faith and understanding will men, equipped with the divine conviction of purpose and accomplishment, enter upon the final battle between right and wrong.

With such conviction, all baffling indecisions, all bitterness of controversy, all egotism of self-preservation and self-glory are ended. As it came to the militant Saul, as it came to the gentle, loving heart of our Leader, this divine conviction of "the gift of the grace of God" brings with it the relinquishment of vain sovereignties, and the humble recognition of "the effectual working of His power."

Evelyn F. Heywood

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