Scotching Satan's Serpentine Seductions

Mrs. Eddy tells us that the nothingness of nothing is plain, but nowhere that I recall does she say, or even imply, that the subtlety of subtlety is plain. Would that it were. It is the nature of the beast, animal magnetism, to anesthetize consciousness, in somewhat the pernicious way carbon monoxide acts--silent, odorless, and unseen. Thus the necessity that our watch be wakeful, spiritually active, and imbued with a keen sensitivity to anything that is unlike God, which of course means we had better be well acquainted with Him. Other things than gentle lambs come in lamb's clothing.


If the old westerns are to be believed, one of the tricks employed by Indians attacking a circled wagon train was to hang off the side of their horses on the side away from the beleaguered defenders so that only a horse was visible to them. The Indians would then shoot either under the neck or over the back. (That paleface's speaking with forked tongue--or worse, much worse--invited retaliation, is beside the point here.) A horse is all mortal mind, animal magnetism, wants us to see.

Mrs. Eddy sounded the tocsin repeatedly in her writings on the dangers of a flaccid sentinel. In addition to the quote in the previous entry there is the well-known citation on page 442 of Science and Health, lines 30-32, and page 114 of Miscellaneous Writings, lines 21-26. It should also be remembered that a sentry or porter is posted at the front door, not the bedroom door or closet door. The discovery of an intruding evil in the act of ransacking our mental drawers or snuggling up with us in bed is not the ideal time or place to deal with it, though we grow from those kinds of experiences too.

After my last posting I thought about Mrs Eddy's unexpected, to me, choice of the word "criminal" in the quote from Science and Health used. The Student's Reference Dictionary has, in part, this definition of criminal (noun): "a violator of law, divine or human." And, in part, from criminal (adjective): "That violates moral obligation; wicked." Our in-baskets need to be constantly subjected to diligent scrutiny, else we too might be wondering like King George III how the devil that apple got in our dumpling.

Note: "'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle replied, 'and the different branches of Arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.'" (Lewis Carroll, from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)