Editorial February 2, 1907 Issue

"THE TRUE ORIGIN"

ANNIE M. KNOTT

ONE of the questions often asked by those who are looking into Christian Science is this, How did evil originate? and in some cases the inquirer feels that until it is answered his progress is barred—a mistaken conclusion, by the way. Speaking strictly and scientifically, evil never did originate, for in the true sense there is no causation apart from Principle, with its perfect law and order. Every earnest student of Science and Health discovers almost at once that sin, disease, and death—all the manifestations of evil—have no Principle, hence no reality, for they do not express law and order. It is, therefore, impossible to discuss what is lawless, unreal, as we would consider or discuss that which expresses Principle, law, and order; to regard that which only seemeth to be as we regard that which really is.

In endeavoring to explain this to a beginner, a more advanced student of Christian Science employed the familiar illustration, that although a schoolboy may make mistakes, two plus two always equals four, and that any other statement of this fact must be untrue, hence unreal. This the beginner admitted, of course, but contended that the "mind" of the boy had made the mistake, and wished to know why. It was easy to show that this assumption was wrong; that intelligence, as reflected by the teacher of arithmetic, did not for a moment entertain the mistake but knew the truth as to this mathematical fact; and not only so, but when the boy's sense of intelligence, or "mind," was appealed to, he too saw this truth, and it displaced the error, which never had been real, although temporarily believed by him. This helped the student of Christian Science to see that to the awakened sense of spiritual reality all truth is self-evident, and that Mind forever witnesses to the truth of being,—forever witnesses to the reality of that which expresses intelligence, God.

In Christian Science we learn the utter folly of seeking to find causation apart from God, good; therefore, if we are wise, we bend all our energies to the nobler task of knowing divine Principle, the only cause of all reality; and here, as in mathematics, we find that the greater knowledge one has to the truth, the more readily will he detect and correct any error which presents itself in the working out of his life-problems. We never find that the great Teacher attempted to explain the origin of evil; he was too busy in or correcting it with truth, whether it was manifested as sin or sickness, and St. Paul's words about "forgetting the things that are behind," are really the best advice that can be given on this subject.

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