Article July 20, 1899 ISSUE

Questions and Answers

A student

Does not the teaching that evil is unreal, encourage mortal man in the indulgence of sin? —One in Doubt.

Inasmuch as mortal man sins, he does so because be believes that sin is real and confers pleasure. He is not influenced by the teaching that evil is unreal, but by the belief that it is real, hence the doctrine of the unreality of evil can in no sense be held responsible for his sin.

It is not possible for mortal man to sin and then escape punishment by saying, "I have done nothing, because evil is unreal." The Divine law, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," cannot be annulled. The discord and suffering that follows the indulgence of sin is just as real as the sin, and there is no way in which it can be made less real. Sin is a debt of the sinner's own contracting, and no one but himself can pay it.

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