Following the account of shipwreck, the deliverance of Paul and the other prisoners from the stormy sea, and their safe landing on the island of Melita, an incident is related in the twenty-eighth chapter of Acts which is worthy of consideration.

While Paul was assisting the friendly natives in building a fire, "there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand." The natives, seeing the "venomous beast" clinging to Paul's hand, immediately concluded, "No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live." But as they watched, expecting to witness Paul's sudden death, "he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm." There is no intimation either of panic or of fear in Paul's thought or action. He did not strike at the viper or look about for material means of help; he simply shook the viper into the consuming heat of the fire.

In marked contrast with this instant rejection of error is the attitude which listens to error's claims and fears them. Mary Baker Eddy in the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," writes (p. 411): "Disease is always induced by a false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. Disease is an image of thought externalized." And she continues, "Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body."

The ability instantly and fearlessly to reject error is not gained at the moment which requires some necessary decision, but is the result of increasing spiritual preparedness leading up to that moment. In proportion to that preparedness, the rejection of error will be prompt and successful. From the time of Paul's conversion to the Christian faith, through many trials, including persecution and imprisonment, he had been steadily gaining faith in and understanding of the power of God to guide and protect him under all untoward circumstances. Thus when ignorance and hate, signified by the "venomous beast," attempted to stop his God-given activities and usefulness, he could shake off the viper so promptly that not only was he saved from harm but those around him were also protected.

Paul's method of handling error is an example of what Mrs. Eddy calls "the unlabored motion of the divine energy." Her statement reads (ibid., p. 445), "Christian Science silences human will, quiets fear with Truth and Love, and illustrates the unlabored motion of the divine energy in healing the sick." Through all that he had experienced Paul had learned to silence human will, the will which formerly had been active in persecuting the Christians. His enlarged understanding of God's allness quieted fear. Hence it was through "the unlabored motion of the divine energy" that he was enabled to shake off the beast and feel no harm. Thus his Christianization and spiritualization of thought were immediately effective. This is the refining process of thought which must precede every demonstration of Christian Science.

Are we satisfied with our present attainment along this line, or are we still prone to dally with error, to entertain, harbor, or dwell upon it? Do we first accept it as reality and then, when it becomes sufficiently annoying, endeavor to prove its unreality? Do we watch its manifestation and, according to that manifestation, call it better or worse today than yesterday? Should we not instead cast off evil suggestion instantly with the confidence and assurance which come through the understanding that God, good, is the only cause and creator, and that the effect of this cause is correspondingly good?

This does not imply that there is reason for doubt or discouragement if courage and persistence are needed in maintaining our position. Even though the argument may be that we have held to some phase of materiality, sickness, fear, sin, or disability too long to shake it off quickly, still at any moment we can see through its pretensions and shake it off promptly and permanently. Time has not made the condition true or given it one iota of reality. If we have not yet gained sufficient understanding to demonstrate instant deliverance from every adverse circumstance, this may be the call for more diligent study of the Bible and our Leader's writings, more gratitude for the proofs we have already experienced or witnessed that God's grace is sufficient at all times, and greater desire for usefulness in furthering the Cause of Christian Science.

Christian Scientists should recognize that they can no more shirk the duties which come through church membership than they can shirk the demonstration of Christian Science in their own lives if they wish to continue to reap, in increasing measure, the fruits of the teaching of Christian Science. Indifference on this point may account for delayed healings and their seeming inability to avail themselves of the ministrations of the Christ, Truth.

We cannot hope to enter the kingdom of heaven without helping to keep open the avenues whereby others may enter. The Christian Science church, founded by Mrs. Eddy, is such an avenue, and its members are proving, times without number, that one means of spiritual progress is the privilege of serving their church through its activities. The discipline that comes from learning to work together in love and the exercise of patience in our efforts to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, further individual growth. Thus are we brought to the mount of revelation, from which we envision man's God-given perfection and dominion. Through increasing understanding we learn instantly to deny with authority every argument of error that may present itself for acceptance as real.

Mrs. Eddy admonishes (ibid., p. 390): "Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin." To give us a firm foundation for our confidence in being able thus to dismiss error, she reassuringly adds, "You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick." Many students of Christian Science can testify that obedience to this admonition has borne them on strong, unfaltering wings above the temptation to yield to or acknowledge a power apart from God, and quick healing for themselves or others has followed.

Every proof of God's power teaches us to discontinue the foolish and dangerous habit of entertaining, dwelling on, or indulging the first suggestion of evil. Christian Science prepares us to deny evil instantly with the denouncement: You are illegitimate because God is not your author, nor does His law support you. I cannot know you because you are not known of God. Thus will our demonstrations become more and more unlabored, sure, prompt, and joyous, "for the battle is not your's, but God's."