Article March 27, 1920 Issue

"Good and evil elements"

NELLIE B. MACE

It is axiomatic that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. It is obvious, then, that the whole of anything that may be considered can be comprehended only as the elements which comprise the whole are, one by one, understood. If this is true of finite subjects, it is even more true, when the realm of spiritual reality is explored. God is understood only as the spiritual idea that expresses Him is understood. It is through specific realization of lovingkindness that Love, as divine Principle, becomes known. It is through the spiritual sense of truth that Truth is unfolded, and through the demonstration of individual goodness God is known as good.

In the same way the whole of evil can be disclosed only as the specific manifestations of evil are uncovered, and evil in its entirely will be eventually dealt with only when the particular phases of evil have been destroyed. The vast difference between the knowing of good and the knowing of evil lies in the fact that, as the elements of good become known, they can be demonstrated in all their beautiful reality to be true; and, as the elements of evil are laid bare, their illusiveness is shown, and they disappear. An increasing perception of the elements of Truth is always accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the apparent reality of evil; and this constitutes the unreality of evil, that it disappears before Truth.

The disappearance of evil before Truth is not in the least mysterious. God is good, and He is All. If All is good, there is obviously no element of evil, the opposite of good, included in the creative divine Principle. The nearer the approach to divine Principle, the farther, necessarily, is the departure from evil. Man, as spiritual idea, expresses his divine Principle, God. His nature is inherently good, and, as man is the effect of creative Principle, and not himself a creator, he cannot originate anything unlike Principle. As spiritual man is thus understood as a perfect spiritual idea, it becomes possible to demonstrate the goodness and purity of man in the likeness of God, and evil thus inevitably disappears. "God could never impart an element of evil," Mrs. Eddy writes on page 539 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "and man possesses nothing which he has not derived from God."

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