"EVIL IS NOT POWER"*

Archibald McLellan

[I am requested to reprint this editorial with an amendment which will be found at the end of the second paragraph.—Archibald McLellan.]

Our friend Mr. B. O. Flower in his article in the October Arena has unwittingly exploited the supposed power of evil, hypnotism, and has conceded to this self-asserted and self-asserting phenomenon of mortal mind a place in human experience which it could not occupy without dethroning God, good, and robbing Him of His place as the one supreme infinite Mind who governs and guides the universe according to His will and pleasure, which will and pleasure must of necessity be in accord with His own divine nature.

The belief of power in hypnotism is a belief in the reality and power of evil, for it is claimed by professed hypnotists that they can influence other persons to do evil or good as they may direct. That this belief should prevail is possible only because the truth of being is not clearly understood. That it is a mistaken belief is easily seen from its own contradictory character. Jesus said, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit;" and if we start with the admitted fact that God is omnipotent, that He is infinite good, we can never admit that there is a power opposed to Him and to His nature. That evil is real or has power is an unthinkable proposition unless we utterly and absolutely repudiate God. Neither hypnotism nor any other form of evil can do the work of Truth, or have power or entity; it can do nothing but destroy itself. If evil with its train of sin, sickness, and death could have power or effect, then God would be dethroned—would not be omnipotent. Such a proposition must be rejected by every Christian, by every monotheist. Evil is no more real, because it seems to be real, than a wicked or a painful dream in sleep is real. But the individual who attempts to produce the dream of sin, disease, or death, is guilty of the attempt to commit a murder, and Mrs. Eddy has prophetically said that at no distant day this crime will be as punishable legally as is the crime of attempting to send a bullet into a man's heart. In Divine Science Life is God, and God is infinite, all; but to the personal senses the belief of death is as real as the fact of life, hence the belief that says. "I can kill a man mentally," may be father to the thought of committing the crime of trying to kill a man, since as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." A correction from the article 'Evil is not Power," in the Nov. 2, 1907 Sentinel was supposed to be printed in the Nov. 9, 1907 Sentinel, but wasn't included. In response to that omission, the following correction was printed in the Nov. 16, 1907 Sentinel: "A mistake occurred in the last two sentences of the second paragraph of the editorial, 'Evil is not Power,' as it appeared in our issue of Nov. 9. These sentences should have read:— But the individual who attempts to produce the dream of sin, disease, or death, is guilty of the attempt to commit a murder, and Mrs. Eddy has prophetically said that at no distant day this crime will be as punishable legally as is the crime of attempting to send a bullet into a man's heart. In Divine Science Life is God, and God is infinite, all; but to the personal senses the belief of death is as real as the fact of life, hence the belief that says. 'I can kill a man mentally,' may be father to the thought of committing the crime of trying to kill a man, since as a man 'thinketh in his heart, so is he.'"