“Ever since the foundation of the world, ever since error would establish material belief, evil has tried to slay the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this lie, called evil. The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse typifies the divine method of warfare in Science, and the glorious results of this warfare.” Science and Health By Mary Baker Eddy, p. 567
I am proofing Chapter 123 of, Spiritual Footsteps by Carpenter, and it happens to be on this topic. “More than all others, Mrs. Eddy, through her life’s experience, has portrayed the hidden workings of evil, as well as the correct solution of its claim to existence and power. Yet the materially-minded, not perceiving the importance of many of the outward evidences in her life, as bearing testimony to the inward spiritual strife, and the vital lessons taught, would desire to expurgate from the record of her life those things which, from a human standard of good, do not accord with the world’s ideal of a patient, loving Christian, meek and long-suffering, traits which we are trained to associate with the life and character of the one approaching perfection. But such traits were not characteristic of Mrs. Eddy’s warfare against evil. In actual demonstration, Mrs. Eddy’s attitude was similar to that of St. Paul, as portrayed in Acts 16, where his sense of superiority to his enemies was so dominant, that it made them afraid. … In such an offensive warfare against the claims of evil, meekness and gentleness would be fatal. Mrs. Eddy was a soldier of God, and the record of her warfare is more important for the instruction of the student, than is that of her meekness, love and patience, which were qualities which she exhibited as the fruit of her warfare against evil, but not during such warfare. It is plain, therefore, that to expunge from her life’s record the positive methods necessary, when she was battling with Goliath, would be to rob the student, and the world, of the footsteps vital to the completion of the knowledge by which, and only by which, man may work out successfully the problem he is required to solve.”