Editorial November 2, 1907 Issue

"EVIL IS NOT POWER."*

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.

Christian Science combats the false belief of power in evil, and frees mankind from the effects of this delusion. Its leading postulates are that God is the only power, that evil is not power. Hypnotism, mesmerism, and the like are but perverted beliefs which find their foundation in the supposed reality of matter, and which disappear as the truth of being is understood. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, page 186, "Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil;" and again on page 183, "To suppose that God constitutes laws of inharmony is a mistake; discords have no support from nature or divine law, however much is said to the contrary.... Truth casts out all evils and materialistic methods, with the actual spiritual law,—the law which gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice to the dumb, feet to the lame. If Christian Science dishonors human belief, it honors spiritual understanding; and the one Mind [God, good] only is entitled to honor."

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