Chapter 2 – The Unseen Foe

WHOSO READETH LET HIM UNDERSTAND - Chapter 2.

THE

UNSEEN FOE

WHERE two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
In this statement Jesus did not mean that he personally was present, but that the I, the one Mind—his Mind—was present, for Mind is omnipresent. In Mrs. Eddy’s words, “This beautiful presence all around us is the substance of every good which we could possible desire, yea, infinitely more than we are capable of desiring. ‘Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him.’”
Our meeting this day holds a world of promise, is fraught with tremendous hope and filled with far-reaching possibilities, for where two or three are gathered together in the name, the

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understanding of Christ, Truth—the truth about being—there God, the one Mind, is found expressing Himself guiding and directing His own activity.
In eighteen eighty-nine, to her March class, Mrs. Eddy said, “We, today, in this classroom, are enough to convert the world if we are of one Mind.” On another occasion she declared, “A small group of wise thinkers is better than a wilderness of dullards and stronger than the might of empires.
Have you ever contemplated the meaning of a gathering of real Christian Scientists—real metaphysicians—with one accord, in one place, with one Mind: the accord, the accord of Mind; the place, the presence of Mind; and that Mind, God? What cannot right knowing, devout prayer, accomplish? Mind is All-in-all and there is no limitation to the love and blessing it showers upon its own idea.
But as Christian Scientists you are not and cannot be deceived into believing there is any value or virtue in “numbers.” You know that God and His idea is one and all, and you know the term numbers—anything more than one—is merely a figure of speech implying the infinity of Mind and its expression. Infinity is always

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one and the idea’s oneness is with its Principle and never with idea.
Numbers carry no importance in and of themselves for you realize, as Mrs. Eddy states, the Christian Scientist is “alone with his own being and the reality of things.”
Evil builds upon and glories in numbers for they deny oneness when not understood. Christian Science builds on oneness alone, one God, one man, and the eternal communion of Father and son.
Mrs. Eddy is said to have once told a class, “You may falsely think that something stands between you and your heart’s desire, and so go through life here with that desire unfulfilled, but it is not so. Deny it, and you will find yourself free; and good will begin to flow to you and you will see clearly that nothing can stand between you and your own. Lean on God. Trust Him. Understand Him, and He will give you foresight, wisdom, and a capacity to execute His will, and show forth His name.” Nothing can thwart the power of right knowing to bring to light the millennium, the understanding of man’s eternal oneness with good.
Realizing this, how naturally then would Mrs. Eddy declare, “To affirm anything is to assert its possibility — to assert it even in the face of

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all contrary evidence,” and also, “by affirming that to be true, but which to all human reasoning or sight seems not to be true at all, you can bring it to pass.” What can oppose Mind? Does not the allness of Mind make every affirmation of truth instantly available? Of course it does.
What a wealth of achievement this knowledge offers us. Think of it! By affirming that which is true we can bring it to pass. Of course, as metaphysicians, you know the bringing of it to pass simply means the beholding of that which already is. And has not Mrs. Eddy also declared that, “When you reach out to the beyond for the real, you instantly express it”? The heart’s desire sees its fulfillment in this understanding, this scientific statement of fact. Think what it means to be able to affirm anything that is true, and to know that your affirmation is the seeing its actual presence, and that not an instant intervenes between affirming that which is true and seeing it, and that even when all human reasoning declares it otherwise. Mind speaks and it is done. As the Psalmist said, “Who is so great a God as our God?”
What a vista of success and achievement is unfolded to each one through this promise of oneness with all good! But best of all is the certainty and assurance which comes from the

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scientific understanding of why the affirmation of that which is true not merely states its possibilities but actually brings it to pass, in other words sees it as right here.
Before considering the important subject of the meeting, malicious mental malpractice, the unseen foe, let us be admonished by Isaiah: “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,” so that our communion with God may truly be the partaking of that bread and wine referred to by Jesus as typifying the understanding and inspiration of Spirit, the eternal unity of divine Principle and its idea, man’s oneness with God. And as the Revelator declared “There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.”
The metaphysician knowing he consciously is, is assured that consciousness must be, or he could not consciously be. From this it follows that consciousness is. He further knows that that which is is necessarily all that is. There could be nothing outside of that which is, for, of course, that would be is not.
Therefore, this isness must include within itself all being. There is nothing outside of it. It is all-inclusive; it is all Life; all intelligence; all

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Truth; all substance; all power; all Love, the one and only Mind from which alone all thought proceeds.
Such knowing is not obtained from a book. The Bible and Science and Health take you to their source—the one Mind—and in your oneness, your communion with the Mind of those books, you realize what Christian Science actually means. You are not a Christian Scientist because of person. It is a matter of no moment to you whether human belief says there is or is not another Christian Scientist. To you, God is Christian Science and therefore you are the Christian Scientist. You are the man of God, and as such, you are the voice of God—the word of God—and all that you are ever aware of is your oneness with God—God communicating Himself, His will, to you, His own idea.
You never deal with anything but God, for God is infinite and you could not deal with anything outside of the infinite. You could not be aware of, in other words cognize anything unless it came to you as consciousness. Coming to you as consciousness, it actually comes as your God to you. Then you are always dealing with your God, your Mind. You know that. Therefore, you know that if you turn from this one God, this one cause, and look to what you think

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is effect, instantly you become a malpractiser of Christian Science, because you are introducing, or attempting to introduce something besides All—God and His man.
Mrs. Eddy, you doubtless have discovered, has written analytically and completely on the subject of malicious mental malpractice, and all that the term implies, stressing minutely the importance of understanding what it is and what it is not. You must have become convinced that nothing is more important than the understanding of this specific subject, malicious mental malpractice, which, in its final analysis, is revealed as the sum total of iniquity, the complete negation of divine Mind. Through its exposure comes the understanding which is the key to the destruction of everything that assails and hurts mankind.
Whether good or bad, the name given to any claim is of small moment. What is important is to know whence it cometh and whither it goeth, what its origin and what its purpose. That is all the metaphysician is concerned with. And it does not concern him in the sense of distressing him. Far from it. He knows that, since all true thought comes from God, its only purpose is to interpret good. Therefore whether good appears positively or negatively, the metaphysi-

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cian, like Jesus, knows he is dealing with God only. Hence the promise Jesus gave: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
The metaphysician’s conversation is in heaven. He insists upon finding every word to be of heavenly origin, in spite of any distorted meaning. His first and essential duty is to translate every word back to its origin which is God. Take for instance, the words malicious, mental and malpractice. Malicious means with deadly intent; mental means in the realm of mind; malpractice means wrong practice. Hence the complete meaning is a wrong or evil practice in the realm of thought, with a deadly motive and with the sole intent of destroying through a mental process.
Now, how could such a combination of words with such a purpose be associated with God?
The principle of numbers is the law of annihilation to every thing in numbers contrary to itself, not because it knows anything which is contrary to itself, but because its ever-presence is the law of spontaneous destruction to every mathematical mis-statement. In exactly the same way, God, the divine Principle of being, is the omnipresent law of total destruction to

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all unlike Himself, to every mis-statement or misconception about Himself. God thus becomes the one destroyer, the one divine Malpractitioner to all evil, and His intent is deadly—to annihilate every vestige of evil and belief in evil. As Jesus said, “I came not to send peace (to evil) but a sword.”
Science and Health points out that “The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right.” Thus, every wrong borrows its seeming presence and activity from right, from God. When viewed correctly, the negation or suppositional opposite is welcomed, for as reversed, the lie of the corporeal senses is also automatically reversed.
The point should again be clearly established and emphasized that as a metaphysician each one must realize that to bring in a third, immediately makes him a mental malpractitioner, a wrong thinker, for there can be only God and His idea. Furthermore, it makes him a malicious malpractitioner, because malicious means deadly, finite, and the attempt to bring in a third and have something besides Mind, is to finitize Being. That is the cause of all evil.
Do not think you can turn away from what you know Being to be, the one Mind and its idea and the eternal communication or commun-

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ion between them without becoming a malicious malpractitioner. It is not possible. Therefore if you should attempt to do this, all that Mrs. Eddy has said about malicious mental malpractice spontaneously becomes that which you are accepting as your mind. Arouse yourself and ask, “What responsibility have I as a Christian Scientist. If it seems no more than to go dreaming along from day to day, why abandon the old church Christian faith?”
Christian Science is not mere faith. To be sure it includes faith, but rather is it understanding,—understanding which demands as Science and Health says, “Absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire.” You may put off practising what you know. You may “go the way of all flesh,” as mortals have been taught, but all problems will still be waiting to meet you “up the road.” There is only one way in which to work out the science of Being, and that is the way of understanding.
This understanding is the Messiah, or Christ. As Peter said, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Then is it not foolish to imagine that malicious mental malpractice is something that does not concern you and does not have to be dealt with? You must realize that it, and it

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alone, appears as the so-called law of reversal, claiming to have the power and the will be reverse everything of God and with the avowed purpose of crucifying the truth in your thinking. You must see that it is the one and only thing to be dealt with and defeated.
Now we have reached our main subject. In order to present it with a clear sense of its great importance to our welfare, as well as to the welfare of our entire world, I am going to quote for you several statements of Mrs. Eddy.
The first was published in a little pamphlet called Historical Sketch of Metaphysical Healing:—“I regard some of my students’ seeming blindness on this question of a perniciously directed mental influence, with great pity.”
A statement from Miscellaneous Writings: “I am astounded at the apathy of some students on the subject of sin and mental malpractice, and their culpable ignorance of the workings of these—and even the teacher’s own deficiency in this department.”
One from Miscellany: “The only incentive of a mistaken sense is malicious animal magnetism,—the name of all evil,—and this must be understood.”
Another from an early edition of “Retrospection and Introspection”: “Doubters of the

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existence or the evil of mental malpractice, sneerers at the probability of its method, will at no distant day have their eyes sharply opened.”
Lastly from the second edition of Historical Sketch and one that should open the eyes of every Christian Scientist to this subject of malicious mental malpractice: “If any honest Christian Scientist can be deceived into believing that it is chance, not direction by malicious minds which are at work—that ignorance instead of sin is what he has to meet at all times—this error prevents him from understanding enough of the question to insure his own defense, and leaves him in the power of animal magnetism—perhaps temporarily relieved of this suffering, rejoicing in a hope of freedom which he afterwards finds to be in vain.”
It should always be remembered that when Mrs. Eddy is quoted as stating a metaphysical fact, that which seemed to be the voice of Mrs. Eddy was really the voice of the authorship or authority of Science and Health. Now, what was the voice of that authority? Was it not the voice of Mind? You know that Mrs. Eddy did not create the truth of Science and Health, but she became God-like enough to put self aside and let Mind inscribe the truth of Being. No human belief could have written Science and

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Health, and you whole-heartedly subscribe to her own statement in that book, “No human pen nor tongue taught me the Science contained in this book, Science and Health; and neither tongue nor pen can overthrow it.”
Consequently, when Mrs. Eddy states a scientific fact, take it as gospel. If you do not understand it for the moment, do not be disturbed. Ponder her statements. Ask yourself whether your understanding of Christian Science is sufficiently developed to establish those statements metaphysically, and if your understanding does not confirm them immediately, you will find that further unfoldment will establish their truth.
In that last quotation it is wisdom saying to you that if you “can be deceived into believing that it is chance,” circumstance, condition, education, environment, heredity, anything rather than “direction by malicious minds which are at work,” or if you can be deceived into thinking that it is “ignorance instead of sin” that you have to meet at every point, then this error will prevent your understanding enough of the question to insure your own defense, and will leave you in the power of animal magnetism, in belief.
A statement like that from the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, calls for your con-

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secrated thought. You must ask yourself, “What am I doing? Am I drifting along, accepting the suggestions of evil that I am without a position, or without money, or home, or husband, or wife, or health, anything desirable, because of chance—because of circumstance, or am I awake to the realization that it is the deliberate ‘direction by malicious minds’ at work?” Consider also how often the temptation comes to believe that it is ignorance, not sin, that has to be met at all times. Let us see why these suggestions come and at the same time remember, that malicious mental malpractice and ignorance are always one not two, and are always sin.
You know that God could not be cognized unless He were shown forth by the Christian Scientist. In the same way evil would be unknown unless it were voiced by what appears as a malicious mental malpractitioner. But if you think that in any way means there is a person involved, you lose the real sense of metaphysics. It could appear as a billion persons, and does to human belief, but does that make it a person? And yet, you must recognize, before you set about destroying it, that it actually seems to be presented to you perpetually as person, even though it may reach back, over a long period of time in building the argument which is finally

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directed against you, as in claims of heredity, disposition, traits, and so forth.
Do we not all have to plead guilty to the fact that we have been idly dreaming? Did not Mrs. Eddy declare, “I am astounded at your ignorance of animal magnetism. Your enemies are working incessantly, while you are working not as you should.” Which one of us, when something contrary to good is presented, does not immediately begin to think “Well, where did this come from? What brought it about? Some circumstance, some condition, some chance?” Anything instead of seeing that it is always the result of “direction by malicious minds which are at work.”
But you also realize that if you were to seek the so-called minds at work, your efforts would be futile, and you would become totally lost. Why? Because evil is expressed in all its multiplicity of human beliefs negating the infinity of variety of divine Mind and its expression and rapidly changing from one belief to another. It is these malicious beliefs or minds at the dictation of the one evil, which are doing the constant pounding, though you may, if not keenly awake, think it is you own volition. It is this malicious argument going on incessantly, that causes Christian Scientists to bow down to the

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lies it presents and believe among other arguments that they cannot heal, that is to say can-not see God as All-in-all. Paul admonished, “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”
In other works wake up by knowing you are awake and why, and that as a Christian Scientist you cannot be made to believe that it is chance, circumstance or any other thing that is at work instead of malicious mind. Then you cannot be prevented from handling the claim and destroying it, whatever it may be called.
Mrs. Eddy has told us that if we do not awaken and begin to handle malicious animal magnetism, our cause will be lost, rendered wholly unavailable,—the cause of Christian Science—the cause that you love more than all else. But even though consecrated to this cause—to one God and His idea—and loving it with your whole heart, are you awake to and intelligently handling the negation of this cause—malicious mind? If not, do you realize what is preventing you? It is not your self. Perhaps malicious argument is saying to you, “I have no time; or I cannot do it; or the press of home

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duties, or the stress of business prevents my devotion to the cause with my whole heart.” You must know, however, that in reality, there is no mind to voice such untruths since there is only the one Mind.
Consider the terrific turmoil going on in Europe,—the “judgment of the nations” that is typified by the King’s Chamber, in the Great Pyramid! In this turmoil you are seeing in a degree what constitutes this judgment. These are your nations, are they not? Are you going to allow such conditions to continue without turning your attention to them?
Mrs. Eddy is reported to have told some friends that if we did not destroy the belief in malicious mental malpractice and meet its mesmerism, we would go along another 1900 years with the world sunk in blackest night. She also declared that it had tried to overcome her, but she had withstood it all for 40 years, and that now we must do it. Unless it is done, the cause of Christian Science will vanish.
Is this “withstanding” accomplished by indolence, or by the searching out of an easier way to spiritual achievement? Do you think you can do it by turning, perhaps, to the countless foibles and fables of human belief which offer quick means of securing wealth and happiness? Be-

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ware the silly rubbish of so-called superfine metaphysics that is flooding the earth, seeking as the Bible points out to deceive, if possible, the very elect. All of such things mean nothing to the Christian Scientist. God has already done all. Jesus declared, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” What Jesus declared as imperative for him to do cannot be less imperative for all to do.
It is not a question of whether you became interested in Christian Science because you were healed or because you saw its truth, the fact is you vigorously continued its study because of your deep love of Truth. What do you think could rob you of that earnest enthusiasm? Nothing. And nothing has robbed you of it. Then what has seemed to do it? It is this malicious argument that has tried to foist itself upon you as your mental volition and act as your Ego, your I. Are you going to allow it to continue? Are you going to allow yourself to be controlled, or are you going to turn on the light of intelligence and destroy the whole lie that proclaims that malicious evil can make for you a “rule” or “law” of any kind?
You thoroughly understand the uselessness of handling effect. You do, however, recognize the

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wisdom of first seeing, for instance in a case of cancer, the truth about cell, how God embraces within Himself, all that cell means, that there is nothing outside or apart from the isness that is all that is, and of finding cell right where it always is—the very presence of God, in the kingdom of heaven, perfect, indestructible, expressing obedience, orderliness and truth and everywhere present. But having discerned this to your complete satisfaction you instantly see that is but a minor step, and if you stop there as Jesus said, you are an unprofitable servant, for that is only doing that which it is your duty to do—so you immediately proceed from that point to the realization that diseased cell is not the claim. Disease cannot argue. Disease has no intelligence. How could matter, whether called tubercular germ, cancer, or any other disease, argue? You know it has no intelligence wherewith to argue. Then what is doing the arguing? It is sin, malicious mind, malicious mental malpractice, through its so-called malicious mental malpractitioner. That is the real claim every time.
Mrs. Eddy told a member of her household that, “in the beginning it was easy to handle sickness, but now we are handling sin.” Is that not exactly what we are handling? What else

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could this subtle argument be that seem to take possession of you as your mind and makes you voice its lies? It is the unseen foe, the sin of sins. You must recognize it as sin instead of ignorance or some discordant thing, or real healing cannot result.
By that it is not meant that it is unnecessary to reassure yourself that there is nothing wrong, in belief, as a thing. The claim may seem to be some thing wrong, but you instantly recognize that that is not the real trouble, so you do not give it any standing, but instead you discern that it is hypnotic suggestion that must be destroyed. Effect no longer deceives you, it is so-called cause that must be dealt with.
Are you whole-heartedly ready to accept this conclusion? Are you ready to grasp it and vigorously fight back with the truth? Most assuredly you are. You forcefully declare “I will destroy the belief that there is malicious evil that can operate as malicious minds and make spurious laws claiming to govern and control me, for malicious mind cannot think or act, it borrows, as the negation of God, all from God and so as reversed declares God’s presence.” If you do not do this, you will lose the whole purpose of metaphysics. Metaphysics does not deal with

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things in the physical realm, so-called, but keeps all in the realm of mentality.
You cannot play with your understanding of Christian Science. The time for trifling has passed. No wonder Mrs. Eddy is reported to have said to a friend, “This hour is the acme of hate against Love, and Love alone can meet it.” Are you willing to allow your world to fall into destruction? Or are you going to settle the question instantly and declare, “This testimony halts right here. My thinking stays on one side and one side only, the side of God.” Then remember, “To affirm anything is to assert its possibility” and that when you affirm that which is true, although human reasoning and sight may say it is not true at all, you will bring it to pass. Why? Because it is already the fact.
Do you believe that? If you do not, why do you say, “I am a Christian Scientist and I believe Mind is All-in-all”? Are you afraid to trust Mind or to use your own authority, afraid to stand and declare on the side of Mind, and believe with your whole being what you affirm?
This continual argument of “sin” has nothing to do with you. It is something entirely apart from you. It is the argument of malicious mental malpractitioners, or so-called malicious minds, the voice of evil, trying to make you, too, bear

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false witness. Are you going to counteract this argument with Truth, and claim, as Mrs. Eddy points out in Miscellaneous Writings, “full exemption from all necessity to obey a power that should be and is found powerless in Christian Science.”
What you have accomplished up to now, is only a beginning. You must continually enlighten yourself on the whole subject. Like Mrs. Eddy, let nothing prevent your fighting, not only “40 years” but until all malicious mesmerism vanishes under the light of understanding. If you, like our Leader, have to cross the Red Sea, step bravely forward, and it will divide as of old, and you will go through on dry land, rejoicing every step of the way.
You do not have to uncover evil in one sense of the word. It is uncovered. Science and Health states, “Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised.” But if you go on accepting these arguments of malicious mind, thinking that they are your own thought, you are powerless to cope with them. Assert the power of Mind, this Mind that is God, this Mind that is your Mind, and begin to feel that you can see as already brought to pass whatever is true. Evil argues persistently and vigorously. You cannot be less persistent or less vigorous.

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Jesus taught that asking was pre-requisite to seeking, and seeking to finding, and drove home this lesson with the story of the man who besought his friend at midnight to give him bread. “I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.” We find Mrs. Eddy pleading similarly for consecrated and resistless effort, many times throughout her teachings. In Miscellaneous Writings she says, “Are we duly aware of our great opportunities and responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith we are armored?” Why not put yourself on the positive side of that which you wish to carry, and see that the only thing that is trying to stop you is this malicious mental malpractice, with its incessant argument on the negative side.
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself how that East Indian who was on Robert Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” radio program, walked over a pit of red hot coals, heated to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit? He had performed a similar feat in England in 1935, with a temperature of 800 degrees. Of course the belief that enabled him to do it was just a changed material belief.

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As Christian Scientists, we understand it as a form of self-hypnotism. In his talk over the radio after his performance, he said that it was his faith in God and in himself, that gave him the power. It is obvious what the East Indian is believing his God to be. Nevertheless, whether or not he did it through hypnotism, the fact remains he did it, and the question is, how? His utter consecration to his purpose, largely through the elimination of fear of the fire, was what enable him to walk unscathed over the hot coals. As an example of true metaphysical understanding, we have the joyous demonstration of the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who proved the power of real Mind-understanding to nullify the false sense of fire.
If consecration to his task could make the performance of the East Indian possible, think of the possibilities of consecration to the understanding of the allness of the Mind which says, “Son . . . all that I have is thine.”
Do we pass these things by? Are we like the travelers in the parable of the man who fell among thieves? Those who saw the man, with one exception, passed by on the other side, just missing the lesson to be gained had they stopped to unsee the lie and to profit by it. Is not that

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what we too often do? Do we see these things and straightway forget them, or do we pause and ponder and become more consecrated in Christian Science?
When you commence the study of mathematics, you do not stop at the multiplication tables, you go right on to a complete understanding of all mathematics. That is the natural and normal thing for a mathematician to do. Why should there be any difference in acquiring the understanding of Christian Science? Should you not just as normally go straight through to the ever-present kingdom of heaven? You would were it not for one thing, and one thing only, malicious mental malpractice.
Why have we not awakened long before now to what is confronting us,—this one evil with its dogged insistence challenging our every act? It makes no difference whether it is a question of closing a deal in business, or healing a case of disease. That deal or that case would be spontaneously finished the moment it presented itself, were it not for this insistent claim which dares, in belief, to intervene and say to you that the presence of Truth can be reversed, delayed, defeated.
“When you reach out to the beyond for the real, you instantly express it.” That truth is

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self-evident. Who ever heard of looking to the principle of numbers for two times two is four, and not instantly expressing it? The “beyond” is Mind, that which is beyond all mortal sense, all limitation. When you reach out, beyond all limitation, to Mind for the real, you instantly express it. Mrs. Eddy continued her statement, “But because you are still in matter, in belief, and subject to the laws of matter, in belief, that absolute Truth outlines itself to meet the present need.” In other words, it spontaneously appears to you in the language you can best understand.
Then why not expect it to appear? Why think it extraordinary that God can raise the dead, or give you perfect bodily health, or that He can give you all the money you need? He gives you everything. Why should you question it, when there is no such thing as matter, and you are not looking to matter, but to Mind, dealing with Mind, knowing that Mind is All-in-all? When you stop to think, you know that it is absurd to doubt or question. What then, makes you doubt or question? To that there is but one answer. It is malicious argument, daring to suggest that you have lost your faith and confidence in God, that you no longer trust your ability to heal and to heal all disease. You know, however, that the healing is already there, that in reality there

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is nothing to heal but something of God to see, and that what you say, as the voice of God, stands fast, and cannot be reversed.
What is there to stand between you and Mind, and its spontaneously appearing to you? Nothing. Then you say, “It is not I that doubts, it is the suggestion of evil trying to substitute itself for my I; it is malicious mental malpractice, operating as malicious mental malpractitioners.”
Mrs. Eddy warns us in Miscellaneous Writings, that “Large numbers, in desperate malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-bearers.” They are attempting, by their arguments, to weaken the Christian Scientist’s confidence in his ability to show forth God. Evil is afraid of the standard-bearers, for they stand as God’s law of truth to evil, saying “Thou shalt surely die.” Then is it not malicious mesmerism that is raising its head against you, and trying to discourage you, tempting you to voice its lies? Who is a standard-bearer in Christian Science, except the one who knows something of himself? Because you know something, of yourself, in knowing why being is, you are the standard-bearer.
From a study of Mrs. Eddy’s writings, on the

subject of malicious mental malpractice, it becomes apparent that no matter under what guise evil may appear, it is never anything but malicious animal magnetism. There is only one way for you to free yourself from becoming the servant of sin, from lending yourself to malicious mental arguments and that is, as Proverbs states it, “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” In all ways start with cause and cause, God, will take care of effect.
You remember the statement of Mrs. Eddy, in her early Science of Man, “Do not think to deceive yourselves by deceiving others, for Wisdom will call you into judgment for all you think and act, and the tribunal before which your true position is tried and proved, is the demonstration that you are able to give of healing the sick, after learning the Principle upon which this is done, and the only one by which you can succeed to the most marvelous instances of cure.”
Do you want to heal? Do you want to have the kingdom of God right here? Nothing can limit your power. You alone could limit it by listening to the malicious arguments of the mental malpractitioner instead of knowing that God is the one and only Mind.
When the warning is given, “Do not think to deceive yourselves by deceiving others,” does it

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not mean that we must save ourselves from this deception by insistently seeing the reality and everpresence of God and His idea and thus healing the sick; in other words by consistently correcting the lie with our declarations of Truth? Then go out, as it were, “into the highways and byways” and do this healing and so prove what you know. Why not? The lies presenting themselves as consciousness are many and each one must be taken back to the Father’s house and there found correctly. This means taking the things of God and showing them unto the creature. Then, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Every Christian Scientist must understand and does understand that when the word “heal” is used in Christian Science it does not mean to heal someone or something, for there is nothing to “heal” with God as All-in-all. Thus healing in Christian Science simply means conscious oneness with God, and the efforts to bring about this oneness are not based on its absence but are merely the refutation of the negation and the translation of it back to its original fact of good as all the isness there is.
You know that every thought and every act will be brought into judgment. Can you be a

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mathematician without facing tests on every rule? The understanding of Christian Science demands no less. Then why make excuses? Why think that anything, as a test of your sincerity and understanding, can take the place of healing the sick and heavy laden?
In Miscellaneous Writings it is stated, “Less teaching and good healing is today the acme of ‘well done;’ a healing that is not guesswork,—chronic recovery, ebbing and flowing,—but instantaneous cure. This absolute demonstration of Science must be revived.” If you are not healing, not seeing and feeling God as All-in-all, get immediately into your “closet,” and there alone with Mind, ask what is stopping you and arouse yourself to resist this hidden mental foe which declares you do not understand God.
The incessant argument is that you cannot heal,—that you cannot know God—that you do not know how to heal—how to understand Him. Then the argument continues, calling its lies laws of matter, of nature, anatomy, physiology, heredity, hygiene, theosophy, spiritualism, astrology, false theology and so on; also laws of wish, rule, inclination, desire, hatred, anger, endless would-be laws. All these are simply the negation of divine Mind and its activity, and melt away under the lens of Truth.

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Thus evil argues incessantly. Are you accepting its argument? You know that nothing can stop you from healing, because whatever you affirm that is true, even if “to all human reasoning or sight it may not seem true at all,” still it will come to pass. It could not be otherwise since “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation” as Science and Health declares, and since good is, not will be.
To you, body means embodiment. You do not think of body as just a conglomeration of atoms, weighing a certain number of pounds. You think of it as the full interpretation of Mind to you. In your healing work in Christian Science, consider carefully this statement which Mrs. Eddy made to some friends: “What thou needest to know is that mortal mind has translated the body and its functions into matter, and immortal Mind, gives back the original with the functions, preserved and harmonious, but not as not in matter, but as and of Mind.” By the phrase, “not as not in matter” is meant that Mind does give back the original body and its functions, preserved and harmonious, in that which may seem to you to be matter, but which is really Mind. There can be no limitation, because all is Mind, not matter at all.
You may think good appears materially as

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health, security, position, and other seemingly advantageous conditions. However, regardless of the appearance, you would not be aware of even a sense of good if it were really material, if it were matter as such. Affirm on the side of that which is true, and the true will supply you with all good, and will give back the original, free from limitation; in other words, will give back body, not without functions, but with “its functions preserved and harmonious, but not as not in matter, but as and of Mind,” in the positive language that you can best understand.
Compel yourself to stop doubting, quibbling and questioning and begin to work. Exercise the will of God. It will operate every time, for “Whenever you reach out to the beyond for the real, you instantly express it.”
That which is real, that which is true, is not in the process of coming; it is already here. That applies not only to health, but to the fulfillment of all good, regardless of the need or the occasion. The answer is here—present every moment. Then reject with equal insistence, the perpetual lying insistence of the mental malpractitioner, that evil is the reality. You are not afraid to use the will of God. As the man of God, the voice of God, you declare, “Here I stand, and evil has no power.”

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“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Because I have brought out so strongly the necessity of using your “will” in facing the work that lies before you, I would like to repeat to you a little poem, called “Consecration.” This poem is anonymous, but Mrs. Eddy evidently thought highly of it, because she asked to have it published in The Christian Science Journal of October 1900. Obviously it is not wholly metaphysical, but it is easy to comprehend why she thought it worth publishing, for it is filled with the right understanding of will power, and is worthy of your most thoughtful consideration.

CONSECRATION
Laid on Thy altar, my Lord divine,
Accept my gift this day for Jesus’ sake;
I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine,
Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make.
But here I bring within my trembling hand
This will of mine—a thing that seemeth small,
And only Thou, dear Lord, canst understand
How, when I yield Thee this, I yield mine all.

Hidden therein Thy searching eyes can see
Struggles of passions, visions of delight,
All that I love or am, or fain would be—
Deep loves, fond hopes, and longing infinite.
It hath been wet with tears and dimmed with sighs,
Clinched in my grasp ’til beauty it hath none.
Now, from Thy footstool, where it vanquished lies,
The prayer ascendeth, O may Thy will be done.
Take it, Oh Father, ere my courage fail;
And merge it so in Thine own will that e’en
If in some desperate hour my cries prevail
And Thou give back my gift, it may have been
So changed, so purified, so fair have grown,
So one with Thee, so filled with peace divine,
I may not know, or feel it as my own,
But gaining back my will, may find it Thine.

Notice how in gaining back (your) will, you “may not know, or feel it as (your) own, but find it Thine.” You find God’s will as your will. Use it then. Do not act as though you were helpless, but use this will of God, and you will be

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turning directly to God, and God alone, to find out what His will is. You will never deal with effect, but will always start with cause. You know to begin with effect, is to yield yourself to the enemy of mankind and aid and abet the wilfulness of evil, malicious mental malpractice and its tools. You start first with God, divine Mind, and find Him the source of all that appears. You cannot then malpractise but will bless mankind. This is what is meant when Science and Health says, “Your true course is to destroy the foe, and leave the field to God,—Life, Truth, and Love, remembering that God and His ideas alone are real and harmonious.”
May I now leave with you a statement of fact and an exhortation from Mrs. Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings: “Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously, or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fervently, for deliverance from the claims of evil. Thus doing, Scientists will silence evil suggestions, uncover their methods, and stop their hidden influence upon the lives of mortals. Rest assured that God in His wisdom will test all mankind on all questions; and then, if found faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us the powerlessness of evil,—even its utter nothingness.”

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Published by Footsteps Of His Flock®