One lesson to be learned from the war in Ukraine, is the value of having a strong defense in place to protect oneself from enemy attack. It’s a rule that not only applies to countries, but to metaphysicians, also.
Mary Baker Eddy was so clear about the need for daily defense for her students, that she put a by-law into the Manual of The Mother Church, reminding each member of her church to daily defend their mental practice from outside mental influence.
In a by-law titled, “Alertness to Duty,” she wrote, “It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned” (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 42).
Our “duty to God,” is to honor God’s omnipotence and omnipresence, which in turn, means to not honor evil with power or presence.
Our duty to our Leader, is to put on the Mind of Christ, and follow where Truth and Love lead thought, which is right to God, and away from all evil impressions and suggestions.
Our duty to mankind is to see the child of God for everyone, and not let mortal mind cover-up our view of God’s child with pride, self-righteousness, malice, hate, or jealousy.
The “works” of proper daily defense, is a thought clear of evil and a perspective dominated by spiritual reality. The healing outcome that results, justifies the effort it took to get there.
Be sure to build a strong defense against all evil today. Know God, and only God, as the only power and influence at work in your life.
Thank you very much for this utter helpful reminder, I’ be pondering this all day.
Being a lifelong CS I do my best to really live this by law. However there is a part I do not clearly understand : ” By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned” : judged, justified, condamned : does God, Love judge ? condemne ? certainly not ! so what does this means and who judge ? is it mortal mind ? which is only a wrong concept ? Mrs Eddy was guided to specify this severe advice, no doubt about that but what does it mean ? Evan or commenters could you help me out with this ? if I can understand this more clearly, today will be a bright day ! Thanks to All.
“By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned”
To me, this means that ones actions (works) is guided by ones mental state, MIND, as to how we deal with (what actions we take) mortal mind on a daily basis.
The efficacy of our defense against mortal mind will be judged (determined) by the outcome of our actions (a direct result of our thinking) to either be successful (justified) or unsuccessful (condemned). You are your own judge. Our duty(s) is to work daily to make sure we have ” . . . thought clear of evil and a perspective dominated by spiritual reality”.
To me this is why in Christian Science we do not pray FOR something, we pray ABOUT it.
Dear Martine, thank you for asking this question. I also sometimes find myself confused when Mrs. Eddy’s wordings seem very harsh. I try to keep in perspective the time period in which she wrote. The language was much more formal then. She was a proper New England lady of the 19th century and was raised on the “fire and brimstone” way of understanding the Bible.
I agree with you that God, who is pure Love, isn’t condemning or punishing us. Perhaps she means that when we seem to forget that God is All and we live as if error is real, our lives can appear to get way off track and we experience suffering. That kind of suffering can feel like a punishment or condemnation but is just the “hell” of believing what mortal mind says, instead of the heaven of resting in what God says. Hoping Evan will hop on here with some guidance.
Love to everyone.
When I think “aggressive mental suggestion”, I think anything other than Truth and Love. That I am to stand porter at the door of thought and not allow any thought to enter that would allow me to harm myself or another. That my purpose is to serve Truth and Love and nothing else. One who serves God does not serve ego as one cannot serve both. One who serves God would never engage in sin.
If one were to not guard thought, (“By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned.”) then sin that is allowed to enter will be destroyed.
Not a pleasant experience but necessary as a lie must be destroyed. Putin is an easy example here. If Putin doesn’t do his daily work then he might be tempted to think it is ok to lie to the people in his country and say he is doing a special mission to go after Nazis in Ukraine. They may believe this lie and sign up to fight in this “special operation” and further may carry out atrocities against their brothers and sisters in Ukraine believing they are destroying Nazis because they believed their leader of a country (instead of listening to God). God, Love would never promote genocide, rape and destruction. This influence to harm another and/or see them as a Nazi, is leading them down a wrong path. By seeing your neighbor as a Nazi, you are allowing hatred to enter thought instead of filling thought with Truth and Love.
Ok, now suppose you were to confront Hitler who justified murdering people because he did not stand porter at the door of thought? He would need to be stopped. You would not follow him or carry out any direction from him or be influenced by his dream that he needed to kill others. You would stand up to this by not following his leadership or instructions to kill another.
That is how I see it.
To blindly assert all is good, God is to chuck our duty and allow evil to go on unchecked. A thought to kill a neighbor is not good – nor is it God and it must not be allowed to be covered up. It must be exposed for the lie it is.
That is my take on this.
I got a mere glimpse last night while seeing a sinful scene. I thought how do I address this sinful going on? Do I forsake it by lecturing? Shall I condemn the acting out of sinful sense audibly? What do I want as a result?
The problem was mine! I was seeing error instead of destroying it. Then I stated the Truth, God is all in all. God fills all space. God is all in my consciousness. Soon everyone was involved in wholesome activities, forgetting the magnetism of error. No verbal lectures, no more concerns of the result of sin. Error was gone from the scene. Harmony prevailed. This is the reward of proper thinking overcoming sin. Now what would have happened had I taken a different stance? Discord would have had it’s way. Happiness, that’s what God gives! And Lovingkindness!
Another way to read that statement is, “By his works, by the way one lives, and not by their words, what they say, is what brings the results that matter, and the results will speak for themselves, as to whether how one lives is bringing out good results or leaving room for improvement.”
Thank you so much Evan ! Received loud and clear.
hi martine
i took it to mean that if we do not the work of defense as described by Evan then it would result in us being condemned for the lack of work. The justified part means that we were successful.
For me the judgement is not a personal “judgement”.
It’s not God making a judgement but Principle working,, guiding, and correcting..
It’s like if I try anything out in life I ask myself does this work? Am I getting the results I need..
If I’m climbing a mountain and one path does not work I try another way up the mountain until I find the one that works..
Jesús said “I am the way, the Truth, and the life.” So that is the path I choose but if I get off course I trust divine Love to give me a “course correction”..
Martine, maybe this will be helpful:
The last sentence of the By-Law “Alertness to Duty” is, “By his works he shall be judged,—and justified or condemned.” Does this sound ominous or doleful? Let us broaden our understanding of this precious statement or correct a misapprehension of it. In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” our Leader writes (p. 239), “The objects we pursue and the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show what we are winning.” Our works judge us. Those things to which we devote ourselves and toward which we exercise a duty reveal where our affections are placed. Our works do justify or condemn us: they prove us. “Ye shall know them by their fruits,” said Jesus (Matt. 7:16). We are grateful that we may thus be proved and corrected.
This is from an April 29, 1950, Sentinel article: “The duty to watch and pray.”
My apologies. I neglected to add the author of the article. The name is Katherine S. Whitney.
Thank you Evan for this perfect topic, & Cheryl fir referencing this particular article!!
‘The Duty to Watch &Pray’:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/13g0tdb8z86?s=e
Thanks so much dear Angie for your link of yesterday to Evan`s healing article “Finding the deep peace of God”. It is very helpful and gives me a lot! I answer to the first sentence herein which is a question: “Would you like to feel more peace in your life?” Yes I would!!
And thank you for the link to the article “The duty to watch & pray.” So important!
Dear Evan, I am very glad for your reminder with today`s SpiritView “Alertness to Duty” from the Manual of The Motherchurch by Mary Baker Eddy. That moment I read it, I noticed that I needed to correct something in my thinking according to what you state in this SV. Peace begins always in our thinking and loving heart, what Annette Kreutziger-Herr said today in her DaiyLift from TMC.
For me it is always very helpful to meet the need for alertness to duty in studying the weekly christian science bible lesson sermon thoroughly and prayerfully.
Thank you very much indeed for your daily help. It is always just what is needed and very comforting and freeing. 🙂
It is so easy to find oneself empathising with mortal mind , through a personal sense of love and compassion . I wonder if this is the judgement Eddy is referring to ? She is so clear that error needs to be uncovered /rebuked before we can truly defend consciousness from the deceitful claims of mortal mind and so be a healing force for good in the world .with our brotherlyness , charity and forgiveness .
I have found this article very helpful.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1948/3/50-10/treat-yourself-daily?s=e
Thank you, Evan and all, for your reasoning through this important bylaw. I’ve never before seen it taken apart and explained. And thanks for the reference to the Sentinel article to explore.
Thank you, Evan and all, for your reasoning through this important bylaw. I’ve never before seen it taken apart and explained. And thanks for the reference to the Sentinel article for further exploration.
Thank you, Evan and all, for your reasoning through this important bylaw. I’ve never before seen it taken apart and explained. And I’m grateful for the reference to the Sentinel article for further exploration.
Sorry for the repetitive comments. Not sure how it happened.
Thank you Evan for drawing our attention to the by-law and a better sense of our duties. And thank you Martine for giving us the question, causing us to think more deeply about it. We will be judged in our own mind and condemned if the work is not done, and set right by the Christ to do the work and fulfill our duty. There being one Mind, we are justified, or properly aligned, in our holy purpose so that we will not forget nor neglect our duty to God, to our leader, and to mankind. It makes me confident to know I am not alone. What a joyful sense of myself and every member of The Mother Church – armed and united in Love as we take up this defense together!
These are my answers from a couple of years ago when the question was posed to me.
Our Duty to God, to our Leader, and to mankind (Man. 42:4)
1. How are you defending yourself daily?
You told me once to “live the answer that destroys the question.” Micah 6:8 comes to mind. As does Shakespeare’s “To thine own self be true.”…my own self is God’s reflection.
I try to watch every thought. I stand porter alert and ready to quash what does not belong to good. I understand that I am God’s child, His reflection, His expression, His idea.
I listen to various Sentinel and Daily Lift podcasts. I use Go Verse often to calm any chaotic or errant thought trying to gain entry. Every day I open my Bible at random and study whatever chapter or verse falls open. Almost invariably it is the perfect message for that day. One day I opened to Genesis with all the “begats.” I couldn’t figure that one out. Sometime later it came to me that I was being shown the continuity and infinity of God’s presence. Not that he was creating mortal man, but creation itself, changeless, eternal, and especially progressing and rising from false notions to true beliefs.
I expect only good. I remember that good is never helpless.
In short, I am after knowing God better and better each day.
2. What does “duty to his Leader” mean to you?
There was a time when I thought of sheep as being mindless doormats. But that was before I understood Mrs. Eddy’s definition of sheep and a deeper meaning of the 23rd Psalm. Understanding was brought home decisively one day as I was driving down a country road and found myself behind a flock of sheep. Beside them was their shepherd complete with his guiding rod. Even as I slowed to 2 or 3 miles an hour I was not tempted to honk or be impatient. I could see the flock was being faithful only to their leader.
Mrs. Eddy instructed us to follow her only as she follows Christ. She also said to look for her only in her writings. My duty, then is to follow the examples she sets in her prayers, letters, writings and especially in Science and Health. Follow does not mean replace. We each have our own unique calling. Duty also means I use every opportunity to share her discovery, her work, her writings, but not to claim more for her than she claimed for herself. It means I actively live what I understand of Christian Science.
3. How are you fulfilling your duty “to mankind”?
Loving my neighbor is the crux of it. If I can’t do that nothing else matters. I subscribe to the Monitor. I pray every day on a given subject, whether it be racism (Love instead of hate), famine (abundance instead of lack) or any other human plague. Pandemic is a tricky one. Error would have us believe it’s about sickness and employs fear to enforce and scatter that belief. I pray, rather that it’s about a belief we are separate from God, which is of course impossible, that fear has no basis in fact, that malicious thought is not pollen to be littered about from one entity to another. I pray about the harmony and unity that belongs to all of God’s creation.
My grandmother, a CS nurse, used to play a game she called “Concentration” with me. A deck of cards was laid out facedown, the object being to turn over the cards, remember their positions and match up pairs. As a kid it was a fun game. In later years I saw she was teaching me to focus, to think, to put things in their proper position and to keep them there.
An excerpt from a letter by MBE to Edward Kimball gives me a fresh perspective on the “stay home” mandate of our times. She wrote “Stay in your own home of demonstration. Keep your peace, for idle curiosity, criticism, or even false sympathy may lure you forth.” Not only is she calling us to demonstrate, she tells us 1, to be at peace despite the gossip and varied opinions whirling around us, and 2, to keep quiet and resist the temptation to spread false news and opinions. Quite often “Be still and know that I am God” is the best practical advice.
This is excellent Pam. Thank you.
Thank you. I loved what you shared.
In the Bible Lesson this week: “…the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.” (Jesus, John 10:25) He tells the Jews that gathered around him at the temple that his works are how he is to be identified as the Messiah. Maybe that statement is to a degree true for us too. Our works bear witness of who we are as followers of Christ.
There is no detail to small or too unimportant that God cannot guide us home safely or show us the way to be responsible with out neighbors and ourselves. The one message that I get from Jesus message and repeated in MBE’s writings is our responsibility to honor Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Mind, Spirit, Soul and our neighbors as ourselves.
Thank you Josef för the wonderfully simple but so profund Truth you utter here . It is very good and helpful!☆
CARPENTRY LESSONS
Relationship problem:
lumber purchased, costly.
Plan: build a wall,
not to see the neighbor,
the family member
the office worker.
politicians, world
leaders
Keeps them out of sight.
But, the unresolved problem
remains on our side of the wall.
Noting gained from outlay
of time and money.
The same amount of wood
could build a bridge,
the view nicer,
the expectation greater,
the ease of movement doubled.
A bridge keeps the feet dry,
mentality uplifted, greetings
from the other side: gratitude felt.
Why would we delay healing:
hurt, pride and ego?
With a few short strides,
we can enter His kingdom.
The cost: the same
The outcome: build a bridge and see.
Melissa Baker
To Martine…I found this that partially addresses your question.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/1y0bng2uj36?s=e
So grateful for such a fruitful helpful harvest ! thank you! Thank you All for your insights, articles, poem and link to article. Much to ponder, explore, study and pray. What a bright day the Lord hath made!
Lovingkindness
Thank you Evan and everyone. This has been a question that I have asked myself and to others. Always a wonderful answer given to me as this too has been. Thank you again.
I would like to thank J for the comment yesterday with the link to 3 talks
given at High Ridge House. All 3 were excellent. Everyone should read them.
You’re very welcome Lori. 🙂 They were all so good. The link was originally given by Sue S from Evan’s March 23, 2022, Spirit View.
Thank you Evan for your blog today (and every day) and to everyone for your helpful comments!
About six months ago I got a better understanding of what is meant by “aggressive mental suggestion”. For a few years before this I had been studying to get a better understanding of what is meant in Christian Science by the term “animal magnetism”. I had been gaining more clarity about that but then in February of 2020 there was a Sentinel Watch podcast during which Evan talked on the topic “What is animal magnetism?”. OH MY! What an awesome talk that caused my understanding of that term to increase tremendously.
Animal magnetism is defined in Science and Health on page 103 as:
It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and is both evil and good; that evil is as real as
good and more powerful. This belief has not one quality of Truth.
Evan elaborated on this definition during the podcast and at one point gave examples of what can happen if we believe there is a mind in matter or believe evil is more powerful than good, etc. One example he gave was…If you ever get sick “for no apparent reason”, that can mean you have bought in to the belief of a mind in matter that can cause either good or evil in your experience (I’m paraphrasing what Evan said here so please listen to the podcast for yourself to hear what he said in his own words). Below is a link to the podcast.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/36xjirouxm?s=e
About 18 months after listening to this podcast (and I listened to it multiple times) I was doing a lot of walking one day. At some point the thought came to me “Good job doing all this walking today. Walking is really good for you!” I hesitated before accepting that suggestion but I eventually accepted it and kind of smiled to myself and gave myself a little mental pat on the back. Then about 10-15 minutes later I took a step and experienced a VERY severe pain in my left foot. I looked down to see what could have caused this pain and while the pavement I was walking on was a little uneven, I could see “no apparent reason” that could have caused the pain to suddenly happen. Immediately Evan’s comment from the podcast came to mind and I concluded that the pain was being caused by animal magnetism…by my accepting the belief that mind was in matter and could cause good or evil. During Evan’s talk he also explained that we can’t be hypnotized without “consenting” and I realized my acceptance of the belief that “walking was good for me” was how I had consented. By accepting that suggestion I had agreed that matter is real and has a mind and now I was experiencing the result of accepting that false belief.
The pain was very intense but I managed to hobble back to where my wife was and she asked “What happened?” I said “I don’t know. I took a step and for no apparent reason I felt severe pain in my foot.” She said “Do you want to sit down?” and I said NO! Then we started walking back to the car and I had to stop after every step to catch my breath because I thought I would pass out if I didn’t because the pain was so bad. So again my wife said “Why don’t you sit down…you can sit down right over there” and again I said “NO!” I kept thinking about the line from S&H (pg 495) that reads “When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. ” So I just kept clinging…steadfastly…in thought to what I knew of God and His idea. Now if something like this ever happens to you and you feel it is right to sit down, please do so. But it was so clear to me that this was just aggressive mental suggestion that I didn’t want to give in to it. (Interestingly, although I didn’t realize it at the time, when I thought back on this experience I realized that shortly after refusing a second time to sit down, the pain lessened so that I could limp along without feeling like I would pass out.)
I continued to refuse to let the pain alter my normal activities, but it was a struggle. I continued to walk (limp) everywhere I needed to go for the rest of that day and the next day.
Then I woke up in the middle of the night two days after this happened and the “Alertness to Duty” text came to mind. I had always thought of the word “aggressive” as like a snarling, growling animal. And I had thought of “aggressive mental suggestion” as always denoting something bad, such as in the form “Blah blah blah or you will get sick” or “Blah blah blah or you will die.” For example, when the storm came upon the disciples and Jesus on the boat the aggressive mental suggestion might have come to the disciples as “If we don’t get this boat to shore in a jiffy, we are going to die!” But then it hit me. In my case aggressive mental suggestion had come to me in the disguise of a COMPLIMENT (e.g. “Good job doing all this walking today. Walking is really good for you!”). Since a compliment didn’t match what I thought of when I thought of “aggressive”, at that point I wondered whether Mrs. Eddy chose the wrong word and perhaps she should have used the term “persistent” as in “persistent mental suggestion”. But knowing that Mrs. Eddy chose her words very carefully, I decided to look up the word “aggressive” in the Webster’s 1828 dictionary and found it means “To make a first attack…to assault first or invade.” I smiled and thought “Nice job Mrs. Eddy…you chose the perfect word!” I then realized that aggressive mental suggestion doesn’t have to be something foreboding sounding. Suggestions can come to us in any disguise to try to trick us into letting the suggestion invade our thinking and convince us that matter is real or that there is mind in matter or that evil is as real as good and more powerful, etc., etc. I then thought of the Trojan Horse story. That horse must sure have looked beautiful and harmless to the Trojans when they took it into their city walls. But we all know what happened when they did that.
After having these realizations about the term “aggressive mental suggestion” in the middle of the night, I drifted back off to sleep. A few hours later I woke up and got out of bed and was walking around the house for a few minutes when I realized my foot no longer hurt. It had hurt constantly for about two days prior to this and I had limped severely whenever I walked on it. But now there was absolutely no pain, stiffness, etc. At that point I actually had a “Peter walking on the water” moment when it occurred to me my foot no longer hurt. For a split second I felt like my thought was sinking back into believing my foot was injured, but I was alert to that error and immediately dismissed it and I’ve been fine ever since.
I just wanted to share this testimony so that everyone is aware that aggressive mental suggestion can come to us in many disguises. I now think the most harmful suggestions are the ones that come to us in the disguise of good and that try to convince us matter is real and the source of good or health or love, etc. ANYTHING that tries to make us think there is a power or reality separate from God is aggressive mental suggestion. And thanks to our understanding of Christian Science, we have dominion over those suggestions.
Thanks. A great testimony.
Thank you for sharing your testimony RH!
Thank you RH for sharing that testimony – we truly do have to watch our thoughts to make
sure we are not fooled by AM. I do hope that many people will come back and read it,
Indeed a great testimony, very helpful, thank you for sharing it.
Excellent topic, and so many deeply thoughtful responses! Thank you Evan and all.
The photo brings to thought, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” (Psalm 127:1)