Editorial March 27, 1909 Issue

A DIVIDING LINE

John B. Willis

Thoughtful and conscientious Christian people not infrequently find themselves at a loss to know how to distinguish between spiritual forces which are of God, and hence always good in nature and effects, and so-called forces which are often found serving the ends of evil. "God makes the tree to grow," say they, "and yet its strength is in the club that makes the bully's blow effective! The alchemy of the poppy discloses an intelligence, and yet its extract becomes the curse of the nations!" They are in a state of thought which always brings distress to the heart and confusion to the judgment.

A representative clergyman has recently proposed a most astounding solution of their difficulty by declaring for the oneness in source and hence in kind of all forces. He says: "All thought, the power or force of it, is the power of God. Its marshalings may be for evil ends, ... for in His wonderful love and wisdom God permits it so to be for a time. ... Men need but to know more of the constitution of their own mentality, the power of which is of God, yea, is God, ... in order to come into the kingdom"! In other words, the study of the human mentality is to become the stay of Christian aspiration, answer all its questions, and bring sure knowledge of the way of salvation! This is another modern phase and resultant of the failure to distinguish between the real and unreal, the true and the seeming, which characterizes so much of the world's theology. It is manifest that if all so-called mental forces, are "of God" and good, and all evil results from the exercise of that reputed freedom by which, through divine provision, men are privileged to use divine forces for good or for ill as they like, then in the last analysis the responsibility must rest with him who determined the order and gave the freedom, and God is inextricably involved in the strife and contradictions of human sense! Nevertheless many today are turning to this study of the phenomena of the human mind, with the thought that it is an avenue of approach to the Christ-healing. Failing to distinguish between human beliefs and divine ideas, they essay the impossible task of obtaining a knowledge of Truth by studying error. They are undertaking to acquire the Mind that was in Christ Jesus by centering their thought on the activities of human sense.

On the other hand there is an ever-increasing number of those who are not willing to believe that the forces which conduce to injustice and suffering are of God, and they long for the ability to recognize things for what they are. For all such Christian Science has come to supply a definite and final test for the determination of the inherent nature of so-called secondary causes. Accepting the unquestioned teaching of Jesus, that to know God is eternal life, and that God is revealed to the pure in heart alone, Christian Science declares that the divine ideas, the manifestations or forces of Truth, do not and cannot lend themselves or become amenable to an evil will, purpose, or end; hence any asserted power which at any time or under any circumstance is found in the service of evil is known to be not of God. Again and again Mrs. Eddy emphasizes the thought that there is no concert, collusion, or confederation between good and evil. "Truth has no home in error," she writes, "and error has no foothold in Truth. ... At no point can these opposites mingle or unite" (Science and Health, p. 282).

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