Editorial December 25, 1909 ISSUE

ERROR'S EFFECT AND END

John B. Willis

It has been very constantly preached, and very generally believed, that the suffering which follows wrong-doing is a divine provision, an expression of what the Old Testament writers called "the vengeance of the Lord." Present-day theology would name it the means by which God is trying to make plain to men the unvarying authority of law and to establish in them those elements of character which only the heroic endurance of pain secures.

Christian Science presents an altogether different view, in its teaching that the infinite good does not legislate for evil; that Truth has no use for error, and that the assumption that God has called sin and sorrow, suffering and death into being, for the consummation of a gracious purpose, is entirely out of keeping with the divine nature and with the teaching of Christ Jesus. It declares that distress is the invariable and inevitable outcome of disobedience to the demands of spiritual being, and that the only word Truth has for error is the word of annihilation: "Thou shalt surely die."

The anthropomorphic sense of Deity to which the Old Testament writers give frequent expression in their report of God's asserted smiting of evil-doers hip and thigh, still holds place in Christian thought. Thus, as the averred agent of divine justice, Elijah is excused for his slaughter of the priests of Baal, and Peter's assertedly death-dealing words to Ananias and Sapphira are looked upon as in keeping with his authority as the exponent of divine law. This philosophy finds a place in its scheme of divine government for the catastrophes of flood and earthquake, of heredity and contagion, and it therefore lends itself with little protest to militant means for the enforcement of law and the achievement of good ends.

Jesus unequivocally rebuked this teaching, in his counsel that when one cheek had been smitten, his followers were to turn the other; that they were to love their enemies and do good to them that hated them and despitefully used them. In Christian Science it is seen that while Truth alone destroys error, error is nevertheless self-destructive. To human sense the self of evil is its objectification as personality, material substance, order, etc., in all of which means of expression it is constantly precipitating change, decay, disease, and death. The mortal-sense self of evil (and there is no other), every person and every thing evil dominates, becomes subject to disease and death; while evil itself, the lie and liar, is annihilated by Truth and Love. "God with us," the Christ-coming in human consciousness, is its forever end.

From this point of view it is seen that Elijah in his revengeful act allied himself in so far with a false sense of the divine nature and government, and that he immediately began to feel the penalty pertaining to his false belief. There may be those who think of Peter in the same way in connection with the incident of Ananias and Sapphira, but it must be noted that, as in the case of Paul and Elymas the sorcerer, Peter simply uncovered the colossal offense of these two, and showed them that they had not "lied unto men, but unto God." It would seem that this sudden awakening to the enormity of his evil resulted in Ananias' falling down and giving up the ghost, an event that proved the self-destructiveness of evil; that brought "fear upon all," and that may have startled and astonished Peter himself. In any case, it seems to have given ground for the apostle's anticipation of the same experience for Sapphira, when he found that she was an equal sharer in the offense.

Thus interpreted the incident is a striking illustration of the power of Truth to uncover the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and of the tendency of evil to bring disaster and death upon all that is identified with it. In Science and Health (pp. 186 , 542 ), Mrs. Eddy has said: "The only power of evil is to destroy itself." "Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's own way."

John B. Willis.
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