Christian Science Index for God

An Anachronism ~ Article ~ Wentworth B Winslow

All about us are voices, music, songs, and so on, and ifwe dial in on them, we can hear them. Seldom, though, do we realize that the Voice of God is omnipresent, with its omniscience and omnipotence. If we dial in on Station KOG (Kingdom of God) we may hear that voice. The divine Mind, God, or Spirit, is omnipresent; but the human mind, the devil or Satan, is not omnipresent. It is related in Job that 'there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among  them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.' From this biblical statement, it is plain that the human mind, or the devil, is not omnipresent, and, unlike omnipresent Spirit, it needs material things to put its messages across. I liken the method of reception of the human mind messages to a telephone, and that of the reception of the Word of God, or the omnipresence of Spirit, to a radio.

As we travel through the wilderness of human consciousness, we are much like one sitting quietly at home listening to the radio, which is on one side of us, and having the telephone on the other. The radio is permanently dialed in on Station KOG, and we are listening to the Word of God which is being relayed over its loud speaker, and as we hear God's decrees, His Word of cheer, His promises, laws, and so on, we are experiencing that peace' which passeth all understanding.'

But our peace and harmony are interrupted by the telephone, which suddenly begins to ring violently, and if we take the receiver off the hook and put it to our ear, it will end our peace and quiet. The telephone is, for the purpose of carrying out the simile, the agent of the devil or the human mind; and when the devil would deliver a message to us, and fill our consciousness with error, fear, sin, sickness, death, poverty, or other lack of good things, he must first engage our attention by some evil suggestion or by ringing the bell, which is a notification and invitation to take down the receiver, place it to the ear, and listen to the tale of woe or whatever other evil the devil would impart to us. 

The human mind, or the devil, (for the human mind is the only devil there is or ever will be), needs matter in some form in order to get its message across; whereas the one Mind, or God, being omnipresent, comes directly to us without the intervention of, or use of, matter of any kind; hence the illustration of the telephone and the radio. The human mind, however, when it desires to get its messages over to us, or to be present, must have matter to do so. Moreover, it cannot furnish this matter itself, for being 'neither person, place, nor thing' (ibid), and therefore nothing at all, it becomes at once apparent that it cannot produce matter, for nothing cannot produce something; and so since it has to have matter before it can impart its messages of evil, it is utterly powerless unless we ourselves furnish the matter - a body, hands, limbs, ears, and eyes - for the human mind to work with. As the Revelator to this age says,' Evil comes to us for life, and we give it all the life it has.' 

Keep the receiver on the hook. Don't take it off. Let the bell ring. Let the evil suggestions come. As God said to Jeremiah, 'Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.' Let the suggestions come if they will, but do not believe them. You can still hearken unto the Voice of the Lord thy God while the bell rings. A little more difficult, doubtless, but it can be heard; whereas if you take the receiver off in invitation to the suggestion of evil, or the ringing of the bell, and place it to the ear, you cannot hear God until the receiver is on the hook again. 

If you leave the receiver on the hook, the devil can never get his message over to you, and you will never know from just what you have escaped. Listen to God while the bell rings and rings and rings; listen to God over the noise, and recollect it can be done; and soon the suggestion will cease, or the bell stop ringing, and the operator will say to the human mind, 'No answer.' Then the human mind will hang up. Do not think, however, that the devil has given up. Not at all. When Jesus encountered a similar experience which we are about to relate, as told in Luke 4, it is said that then the devil 'departed from him for a season,' and if the devil or human mind left this remarkable man Jesus only for a season, it is hardly likely that we can escape the same temptations, and the bell will ring many, many times before we score the final victory.

If we take the receiver off the hook and listen in obedience to the ringing of the bell, in obedience to some suggestion, perhaps a pain down on the right side of the abdomen, the next thing we shall hear will be that we must go to a doctor, and then the next thing is appendicitis, an operation, and all the things which go with it; whereas if we let the pain or the suggestion of evil continue, or let the bell ring and listen to what God has to say, it will not be long before the suggestion of evil, the ringing of the bell, or the pain, will cease and we shall be well, and we shall never know what serious and perhaps fatal experience we have avoided. This is so with any suggestion.

Jesus had just such an experience while he was in the wilderness of human consciousness; after having fasted forty days, he was 'an hungered.' Jesus was a good radio. We are all radios. He was dialed in on station KOG, listening to the Word of God, and doubtless enjoying a sense of peace and quiet after that experience, when suddenly the telephone began to ring violently. A suggestion of evil came to him. The devil, or human mind, was at the other end of the wire trying to get his attention. As we have said, the telephone cannot operate without matter if it would get its message over, and so unless you yourself take the receiver off the hook and put it to your ear, the devil is foiled. No one can take this receiver off but yourself Jesus was startled by the ringing of the bell, by this suggestion of evil from the human or mortal mind which said, 'If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.' Did this man who was hungering accept the invitation and take the receiver down, and so listen to what the human mind had to say? Not at all. He continued to hearken to the Voice of God coming in over the air all the while from station KOG, and heard the following message and relayed it over his loud speaker for the whole world as well as himself to hear and heed: 'It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 'Now, it must be remembered that Jesus didn't take the receiver off the hook and argue with the suggestion, or contradict it, or even answer it of himself. Jesus was a good radio, and when the bell started ringing or the suggestion of evil came to him, instead of taking the receiver down by arguing, contradicting, or affirming some truth opposed to and instigated by the error presented, he refused to do this, refused to take off the receiver, and listened over the ringing of the bell or over the suggestion, for the Word of God, and he relayed over his loud speaker this actual Word of God, not his own word, but the Word of the Father within, or, as he said himself: 'I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works' and this Word of God dealt with the suggestion of evil. It was God Himself whose Word Jesus thus relayed, and not his own. Then the suggestion left him, or the bell stopped ringing, for the operator had retorted to the devil ~ 'No answer.'The wrong thought should be arrested before it has a chance to manifest itself.' (Science and Health)

If this word had been simply the emanation of Jesus, human mind, contradicting or negating the presented error, it would have done little or nothing, merely fighting the devil or human mind with its own weapons. Jesus deplored any such thing. He said, 'My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.'(His servants would be the human or mortal mind and its substratum, the body). But this was the actual, veritable Word of God, and Jesus had no more to do with it than a radio has to do with what it is relaying to the world over its loudspeaker. He emphasized this point throughout his career, saying, 'Of myself I can do nothing,' adding always that God was the doer.

In another moment, though, the bell began to ring again, and the devil was on the other end of the wire. It is well to note here that whenever evil approaches us, it can never come to us without a good and sufficient notice. It must ring the bell, or come by means of a suggestion, and we ourselves must always lift the receiver off the hook; but if we understand the operation of evil, we can, if we will, be on guard and refuse to lift the receiver and listen to evil. Science and Health says, 'A knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error,' so let it be noted now and for all time that by suggestion, as has been set forth, is the way - and the one and only way - that evil can make its approach. It must always give notice, 'must always ring the bell, or always come first as a suggestion; but it cannot do anything more unless you yourself invite it to do so by removing the receiver off the hook and listening. 

This time the suggestion came in this way: The devil took Jesus up into a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them and said to him, 'All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.' The first temptation was that of material sensation; this was the temptation of temporal earthly power. 

Did Jesus take the receiver down and listen to what the carnal mind had to say, as did Balaam, the prophet, ages before him? Not at all. Over the suggestion of evil, he listened to the Voice of God, and once more relayed the Word of God, not his own, over his loud speaker: 'Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve,' and once again the operator reported to the human mind, 'No answer,' and the bell stopped ringing. 

Again, however, the devil tempted him. The bell started ringing again, and this was the suggestion: The devil brought Jesus to Jerusalem and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto him. 'If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.' This was the greatest temptation that can come to man. It is that of so-called spiritual power in the church. Did Jesus take the receiver off and put it to his ear and listen to the further blandishments of the devil? Not for a moment. Over the ringing of the bell, over the insidious suggestion, he listened to God and heard Him, too, and again relayed the Word of God into the world, for our benefit and his own also: 'It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,' and again the operator reported to the devil, 'No answer' - and Jesus had won the victory. But even then, great and wonderful though the victory, it is related, as before said, that the devil' departed from him for a season.'

So doubtless will it be with us as we journey forward into the Kingdom of God; but if we are faithful to keep the receiver on the hook, and listen only to God, there will come a time when instead of the operator saying 'No answer,' it will report 'Telephone disconnected,' and you will be able then to say as Jesus said before you, 'Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh [the devil or the human mind cometh], and hath nothing in me,' and then and then only will you have won the final victory.Show all