Let Us Then Be Up and Doing

Christian Scientists must never be careless about replacing the wrong sense that is cast out, with the right sense, so that evil will find no door unbarred, and no vacant room to occupy. They must not take the attitude of crying, “Peace, peace: when there is no peace.” Peace can be won and maintained only when we have fought the holy war and have put up such a fight that evil is cast out forever, seen in its true sense.

Who does not yearn for peace? But today it is the coward, under evil’s direction who calls for peace. The battle for truth has not yet been won. Only malicious mental malpractice would say it has, in order to encourage you to stop the warfare. Never forget the sword cannot be put up until it has first been drawn.

Christian Scientists are soldiers of the cross, and they must fight until victory is theirs. Evil is ever urging us to cease fighting and “Let God do it.” God cannot do more than He has already done. He has done all. It is the work of the Christian Scientist to prove that, to show that forth.

If evil can persuade you, the Christian Scientists, to relax, it will have accomplished its purpose. It will then, after all your years of work and faithfulness, when you think that you are at the point of enjoying the reward of your labors with your “house” nicely cleaned, enter in and rob you of the fruits of your effort. It does this because you have listened to the voice of the charmer, admonishing you not to be so vigorous in you denunciation of malicious animal magnetism, because God is Love, and Love does everything and cares for everyone. True enough, but has not God always been Love, and has He not always taken the same tender care of all His creation? How can He be “about to do” something that He has not already done?

Then it is our work to begin vigorously to prove that God is Love, and that He is proving His care by making His children active and alert.

We have work to do ourselves; we cannot expect God to do our work. He cannot hear that kind of prayer. He hears only the prayer of being active about His business. As Mrs. Eddy says, in Miscellaneous Writings, “Be active, and, however slow, thy success is sure; toil is triumph.”

If you succeed in making your mind a blank, thinking that by thus doing you can place yourself in a listening attitude to hear God’s voice, you have let the bars down and opened your house for the devil’s entrance. That idle, listless mood is exactly the opportunity evil desires, and Satan will quickly find something to fill idle minds. Keep active and no matter how slow your progress may seem to be, success in the end is assured.

Guard against a negative watch that would lull you to sleep, that would make you believe a listless peace is lasting peace. Today the only peace is the sword of Truth.

One, who was Mrs. Eddy’s secretary for several years, told me on two occasions of Mrs. Eddy’s distress, almost despair even, at times, when she thought of what would become of the Christian Scientist when she was no longer here to arouse him to wakeful and vigorous activity.

I can dimly see what she was thinking, that malicious mental malpractice would so beguile the Christian Scientist with a false sense of peace, that he would be robbed of all his opposition to its subtle arguments, and so, little by little, darkness would take the place of light and the world would sink back into blackness.

This will inevitably take place if we become indolent and imagine that all we have to do is listen for God’s voice. We need to be the voice of God, and to be about His business every instant. We cannot rest. Malicious argument is always trying to lull us to sleep. To be on guard continually is our only protection. As Longfellow’s Psalm of Life states it,

“Let us then be up and doing,
 With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
 Learn to labor, and to wait.”