Doughty Doughboys, Not Docile Doormats

Man can no more escape or be ejected from church than he can from heaven. Both proceed from omnipresent God. If error seems to occupy or dominate The Mother Church and many branch churches, we must learn that in reality it is not there now, nor has it ever been. The truth of the situation must be so thoroughly understood that we become much less impressed with and conscious of anything but omnipotent God and His perfect creation, including church.

To do this means we have to be ever watchful and alert to every false belief and wrong-doing so that we do not become unwitting supporters of and accomplices in what must be unseen and thus destroyed. Error ignored or unwisely tolerated is error aided and abetted. We are experiencing the church we see, just as we are experiencing the picture of body we cling to.

We cannot allow ourselves to become disobedient Jonahs fleeing to some Tarshish in order to avoid obeying God's command to face the wickedness of Nineveh. Mrs. Eddy explains God's command to Moses to come back and grab the serpent by the tail as handling error and making it instead a staff upon which to lean. We must turn from what seems odious in the present church and establish in thought a more perfect depict, from which we never turn away.

If enough of us do this faithfully it will heal this aggressive and seemingly ineluctable falsity and reveal its nothingness, not merely its disappearance or fading away. Such prayer and increased understanding will also strengthen us as soldiers of Christ.