Checking crime

We don't have to be helpless in the face of crime. In fact, there's much good we can do when we know where to look for help. The Bible tells us, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." n1

n1 Psalms 124:8.

The understanding of God's omnipotent control over His universe, including man, constitutes a potent law-enforcement agency. God's control is total, for His universe is His expression, immortal and perfect. Our material environment we call reality falls far short of revealing God's true, spiritual universe. This single perception goes a long way toward helping us get a handle on crime, for in the light of spiritual truth we can see that crime has no divine permission. So-called power to do evil is a mistaken sense of real might.

What's needed is an understanding of God and man's relationship to Him. We need to understand that God is the source of all good; that divine Principle (a synonym for God) is the lawmaker and the law enforcer. Principle is absolute, complete, unimpeachable, immovable, impeccable, undeviating. It incudes all that is right and harmonious.

Principle looks after all its creation, including man. No idea of God, no identity, can remove itself from Principle's influence in order to commit a criminal act. The basis of crime being the belief that man is a mortal, that he can be in need, enraged, or separated from God's love, it can be dealt with through the application of divine Truth.

Our role is to recognize with understanding that man is completely spiritual, completely error-free, completely secure in God's love for His creation. This persistent and perceptive knowing can help clear the mental fog that hides man's pure, sinless character. It may also lead to our taking specific steps to help curb crime, steps inspired by our newfound understanding of God. Involvement is imperative if error is to be overcome; and the basic involvement is mental -- clearing thought of any belief in the power of evil and filling it with the knowledge that man is God's reflection, wholly good.

Christ Jesus was an effective healer -- he put into practice divine law. When confronted with a woman accused of committing adultery, a crime punishable by death, he refused to condemn her as everyone else had. He recognized that sin, not the individual, was the criminal. And he didn't leave the woman free to continue in her ways; he said, "Go, and sin no more." n2

n2 See John 8:3-11.

Speaking of the severe struggle involved in overcoming all evil, Mary Baker Eddy n3 writes: "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection." n4

n3 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science

n4 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 96-97.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE The mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: . . . but I give myself unto prayer. Psalms 109:2, 4 m