Article May 15, 1909 Issue

LOVE AND LIGHT

ADIN E. BALLOU

Perhaps no part of the message of Christian Science is more misunderstood than is its teaching concerning the unreality of evil. This is particularly the case in the criticisms made by those of the so-called orthodox churches, yet it is in the same Scriptures which are loved and studied by all Christian denominations that the students of Christian Science find full and complete foundation for all that Mrs. Eddy teaches on this point.

If all things are of and from God, if "in him we live, and move, and have our being," it follows that when we recognize evil of any sort as a reality, and give it power, we are imputing evil to a creator whom Jesus and his disciples, including Paul, declared to be an ever-present perfect Father. We have the key to the problem when we grasp the great truth that the only reality and power evil can have in our daily life is that which mortal sense gives it by its own erroneous thinking. John declared that the message of Christ Jesus was, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" and when we have learned that there is no occasion of stumbling to the real man, who by reflecting Love walks in this light, we have learned how to keep evil from blocking our path or barring our access to ever-present good.

No one will deny that in the three years the Master was doing his wonderful work, every manifestation of evil, however real it may have seemed to those who struggled in its grasp, was destroyed by the light and power of his spiritual understanding. We know, however, that his unchanging consciousness of the impotence of evil before the expression of perfect Love was often misunderstood, even by his disciples. In the eleventh chapter of John we read that when he announced his intention of going into Judea again, to answer the call of the sisters of Lazarus, his disciples sought to dissuade him, and gave reality and power to evil by fearing for his life. Then Jesus rebuked them in that short but limpid parable: "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him."

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"THY WILL BE DONE."
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