Handling Malign Influences

                                                       John Robert Howell



        Error sometimes makes it felonious overtures and suggestions with blatant obviousness.  The sinister insinuation of evil into consciousness, however, can be devilishly difficult to detect, especially if such suggestions are administered discretely in carefully measured doses by a skilled and depraved mental malpractitioner--and they do exist.  There are now and have always been institutions and individuals who hate Christian Science and Christian Scientists and work to destroy both, quietly and unobstrusively over the humdrum landscape of years and decades if necessary.  To induce in the unaware and unwary even modest mental perturbation or a growing spiritual coolness will almost certainly accomplish more than a bold rush at the mental gates. This would, or should, produce a quick and one hopes, effective defense and repulsion.

        It is wise to remember that the serpent is subtle, subliminal. The hugger-mugger corruption of a human mind over years can be far more effectual. We should not ever doubt or dismiss foolishly the possible influence of invisible and silent mental animal magnetism or aggressive mental suggestion.

        When such a miasma settles over a Christian Scientist, often the good that should be done isn't, but the wrong that should not be done is--or the Scientist simply goes "a fishing".  He should rather take comfort in an assurance that he is never a helpless victim of animal magnetism error, or any mortal belief. While there is no simple step we can take to get on a "do not call" list for the devil's incessant callings, Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy have taught us everything we need to know to uncover and tread each temptation, whether bold or subtle, down.  To be victorious over malign influences.

        God be thanked, there are many wide-awake, working students of Christian Science doing this every day.  They are proving that evil under whatever flag it is flown has no power because God, divine Mind, has it all. They are experiencing what Jesus assured all his followers, that they have been given all power over all power of the enemy.

Two Oceans

        Recently I was talking with a friend who happened to serve our country in WWII, in the Pacific theater of war.  This boy was still in the Christian Science Sunday School when he enlisted in the Marines.  He was with the Marines when they landed on Iwo Jima in 1945 and has told us a lot about his experiences.  Even then, he was devoted to the teachings of Christian Science and owes his religion much in saving his life.

        As they were going ashore, his DUKW which is what they called the vehicles they were being transported in, turned over in the high waves, almost crushing him. He very nearly drowned. And as he was in that water, something from Mary Baker Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures came to thought:  It's from The Scientific Statement of Being, and this is what our friend recalled:  "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter.  All is infinite Mind, and its infinite manifestation."  Needless to say, he was divinely protected that day.

        And what brought oceans to my thought was something I remembered from reading about Mrs. Eddy's early years when she was writing her book.  She would take a break from work, and walk down to the rocky shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Lynn, Masssachusetts, and sit on Red Rock for awhile. Whatever she was thinking about, how could this woman have known that years later a young Marine there across the vast Pacific Ocean would recall some of her words and find help.

Why That Color?

        In an earlier blog this month I sent,  in a manner of speaking, a bouquet of roses to all the dedicated workers out there who are giving so much of themselves to our wonderful Cause.  And the reason "pale pink" came to thought, was due to a poem in one of my books.



Pale Pink Roses


I can see them still,

Masses of pale pink roses

Spilling over a white picket fence

Surrounding three sides of

A quaint old house

Off a narrow country road.

Talk about your eye-popping scenery --

Roses covering every available inch,

Quintessential New England spring.

I never did stop and smell those flowers;

Just seeing was overload enough.

And these years later,

 I can close my eyes,

And there they are.

But you know how it is,

Some scenes in nature are going

To escape time's mental eraser.

If ever a picture ought to be

In a nature calendar

For the pleasing month of May,

It is this one.

But who knows, maybe it has been.

"The smile of God", indeed!*


*As Mary Baker Eddy puts it in her book,
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

The Bible in Public Places

Whether somewhere close to home,
or while traveling abroad,
how nice to see people
reading the Word of God.
Waiting in an airport,
dining in some cafe,
how inspiring to see
the Bible on display.
That one cares enough
to spend time this way,
obviously devoted to Him,
always lifts my day.
And who knows?
Seeing the Holy Book
being pored over bold,
may lead someone else to
The Greatest Story
       Ever Told --
the prophesying,
the coming,
the hallowed life,
of Jesus Christ,
God's beloved Son,
and our forever Lord.

A Bouquet of Pale Pink Roses

         Was just sitting here in my office feeling awash in love and gratitude for all the Christian Scientists through the years who have given their best to this religion of ours. How much less blessed my life would be without the dedicated work they did for this Cause of ours.

        While I can't personally thank each one of those who furthered Mary Baker Eddy's sublime purpose for her Cause--to reinstate the words and works of our dear Master, Christ Jesus--I can say thank you to those of you who are giving out so much now.

               So to each one of you, a bouquet of pale pink roses.

Proof of God's Presence

        "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble", the Holy Bible assures us. (Psalms 46:1)

        "Well, suppose He is", someone may be saying back to me.  "What good does that do me?  I need to have some sign, some proof that God is present." Absolutely.  We shouldn't, and don't have to, settle for less.

        This is the beauty of Christian Science, that through its teachings you and I can experience that help that is ever at hand. While comforting statements of God's love and care are wonderful, and we Christians couldn't do without them, how much better it is, and this Jesus showed in his healing work, to have actual demonstrations of God's all-power.

        To achieve this, one could not do better than to get a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and ponder its inspired truths.  But on the way to this, for the readers who are not acquainted with what my religion teaches, let me share some of the things I've found that help me realize God's power and presence.  These are illustrated for us in the life of our Master, Christ Jesus.

        First, voluntary, fervent aloneness with God, divine Spirit.  A keener awareness of His ever-presence has to be patiently cultivated, even as effort has to be expended to deepen a human relationship.  When we wholeheartedly reach out to divine Mind, we hear what God is revealing about His infinitely loving and powerful nature.  From this we gain a priceless awareness of our unity with God, divine Love.

        Once we've complied with the command in Psalms, "Be still, and know that I am God," (Psalms 46:10) then what?  Again, observing Jesus' example and how he was always glorifying his Father, we naturally think of using our solitude to the same holy end.  The Scriptures abound with admonitions to give God the glory He is due, and as we advance spiritually, we find that praising Him is something we cannot do enough.

        Christian Science shows that the ability to feel God's presence in our day-to-day is inseparably interwoven with sanctification of thought.  Reflecting on the way Jesus conducted his life shows that purity was a "given" for him.  Purification is the price we must pay if we would prove our true spiritual nature.  As Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8) And since purity is the natural spiritual state and birthright of you, me, and all God's children, it can progressively predominate in our thoughts and our daily lives.

        Turning to God with mere wishful thinking, hoping He will hear but feeling underneath that He is inaccessible, too far away, or indifferent to our needs is a little like our putting an opaque covering in front of a window through which sunlight has been streaming.  We don't cause the sun to be any less near to us, nor do we stop it from shining. But we do cut ourselves off temporarily from its invigorating warmth.  You can see this, can't you?

        But learning to go to God as Jesus did saves one from this futile exercise.  It enables us to feel our Father's tender, powerful presence that is always right where we are.




     

One Lie

                                                            By John Wellsman


                                             (John is a life-long Christian Scientist and he
                                                             lives in Arizona.)



        It has been reported that Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of the Christian Science religion--much as did Christ Jesus--taught her students and followers important lessons with apparently simple analogies and parables.  For example Mrs. Eddy reportedly once asked one of her household workers something like this:  "If you had a beautiful piece of jewelry pinned to your dress and went before the mirror, that jewelry would be visible in the reflection, wouldn't it?  And if that jewelry was pinned to your dress, it would be impossible to remove it from the reflection wouldn't it?"  We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Third Series p. 71)  Of course the worker agreed with her. However Mrs. Eddy continued penetratingly: "Are you perfectly clear about that?" indicating she felt this point required deeper thought than most would give it.  Many overtly simple examples are like that.

        For instance, the commonly used statement of 2x2=4 as a demonstrable and provable truth versus the untrue 2x2=5 lie (any untruth uttered, is in fact a lie regardless of motive) can provide much food for thought.  An experienced Christian Scientist once brought that home to me by pointing out that while 2x2=4 is the truth, if someone claims 2x2=3 or 2x2=6 or anything else they are actually speaking lies.  Moreover he continued, all such statements are in fact the same lie. Admittedly this took more than a little mental juggling on my part.

        It was perfectly clear that all of these statements were untrue or, in fact, lies.  However initially my thought was distracted by the obvious claim that the statement 2x2=3 is clearly not the same as 2x2=5 so how could these be the same lie?  Different numbers had to be different lies.  Obviously deeper thought was required.  Starting back with the true statement, 2x2=4, I pondered how these apparently different statements could be one and same lie.  Suddenly it dawned on me that while these different statements were in fact lies, they were THE lie in this case.  In fact the ONLY lie about 2x2=4 is something that says 2x2 is NOT 4.  Therefore THE LIE or one lie, in this case is ANY statement that 2x2 is not 4 regardless of how they are presented.  Simple, yet with profound applications to the practice of Christian Science.

        To heal most quickly and effectively in Christian Science it is necessary to directly address the lie behind what claims to be the problem.  Otherwise one is just lopping off the branches of the claim and leaving the root untouched.

        Suppose, for example, one were struggling with a claim of disease.  It would not matter whether that claim presented itself as a "common" cold, an infection or a case of heart trouble or even cancer. The actual lie to be handled was and is always the suggestion (and the lie always presents itself first as a suggestion) that there can be anything unlike God, good, the perfect principle of man.  See this fact (truth) with spiritual understanding and the symptoms--whatever they claim to be--must disappear.

        Why?  Because as Mrs. Eddy showed her student in the above example, it is impossible for the reflection in the mirror to differ from the original standing before the mirror.  In the Christian Science Textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 515:30) she explains it this way:

"Your mirrored reflection is your own image or likeness.  If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also.  If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours.  Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God.  Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original.  As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God."

        This was demonstrated to me a number of years ago when a serious accident threatened to prevent me from performing an important function.  Almost immediately as the accident still claimed to be in progress the suggestion came that this would prevent me from participating in this most important task the very next day.  Immediately this was recognized for what it was: an attempt to disrupt the next day's events.  Instantly I shouted out a very vigorous, "NO!" in rejection of the suggestion. Not in rejection of any claim of accident, pain or injury, but in rejection of the suggestion that the harmony and effectiveness of the upcoming event could be in any way disrupted.  The lie in this case was not the accident, injury or pain but the suggestion that anything could disrupt this upcoming event. As my wife and I prayed we did not refute claims of pain, injury or disfigurement but merely rejoiced in God's ever-present protection from all harm.  It was clear that this lie of disruption could not take the form of an accident or injury.  Very quickly in the next few hours all evidence of an injurious accident disappeared completely.  The next day I was able to perform the needed activity without anyone other than my wife knowing there had been even been a claim of an untoward event.

        In the years since this healing, I have continued to ponder the effectiveness of discerning the lie behind the apparent situation.  Mrs. Eddy speaks of this activity thus:

"When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea.  Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought.  Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious--as Life eternally is--can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.  Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony."  (S&H p. 495:14).

        Thus as we cling steadfastly to the true idea and our likeness to God, we are able to see not only the truth but also discern the lie that would claim to obscure that perfect reflection.  We can see that the beautiful jewel that is our perfect being in God cannot be removed from the reflection--us.