Article December 3, 1910 Issue

THE CASTING OUT OF EVILS

GUY PARKHURST ESTES.

While conversing with one on whom the light of Christian Science was just dawning, the remark was made that in Christian Science devils, as referred to in the Scriptures, are regarded as evils. The old belief in a personal devil had always made it very difficult for this friend to understand such passages as are found in Luke's Gospel, where we read that the seventy returned and said, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." In Christian Science we learn that it is a mistake to personify evil. On page 348 in Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Here is the difficulty; it is not generally understood how one disease can be just as much a delusion as another;" and she continues, "Jesus established this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast out and the dumb spake."

Throughout the ages, either through ignorance or wilfulness, this "foundational fact" has been disregarded and error has masqueraded in every imaginable attire, according as human opinion changed; and so, like a mirage, the illusion of something in nothing has come to seem real to frail mortals. Many writers since Jesus' time have in part depicted the falsity and cowardice of evil, but when Christian Science was given to the world evil was exposed, even as Christ Jesus exposed it, and a way was opened by which humanity could make use of the infinite power of Truth to annihilate evil's seeming power. Goethe, in his "Faust," made for the thinkers of his period a cunning concept of evil. The sound of church bells and the sign of the cross (symbols of righteousness) made his devil cringe and skulk backward. It, however, went no farther, and the mortal was not armed with the understanding necessary to conquer his tormentor when the evil belief assumed its varied forms. The devil could not face purity, yet, disguised by means of flattery and the pretense of personal attachment, unseen, the thief crept into consciousness. No matter what phase evil may assume, if Christian Scientists but abide by the scientific basis of their teaching, they will find that evil in all its forms and phases is subject to the power of Truth. How wonderfully Mrs. Eddy has given this vital fact to the world, when she says, "The self-seeking pride of the evil thinker injures him when he would harm others" (Pamphlet: Personal Contagion, What Our Leader Says, p. 7).

Today the truth of being is again placed before the world as it was over nineteen hundred years ago by Christ Jesus. The Bible is full of scientific statements which strip off every disguise of error and tell us exactly how to regognize the nothingness, the utter delusion of evil. One instance among the many is the raising of Jairus' daughter. The first step pointed out by Jesus was this, "Be not afraid, only believe." There is really nothing to fear when we know that God is All. The material senses may laugh us to scorn, even as they did the Master, but the tumult of mortal belief made no impression on Jesus. "He put them all out,"—all the devils, evils, evil suggestions; then he took the father and mother of the young girl, and three disciples (harmonious thoughts of the one Mind), and entered "where the damsel was lying." The delusion was met and conquered, then he took her by the hand and she arose to her feet and walked, supported by her new-found understanding of Life. She was raised out of the material beliefs which had formerly surrounded her, for the evil beliefs were cast out which would have sent her to the tomb.

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