Article July 30, 1910 Issue

PROPHESYING EVIL

CLARENCE W. CHADWICK.

The so-called mind of mortals is constantly looking for trouble, and it usually finds it. Until quickened by the leaven of spiritual truth, it spends much valuable time in murmuring, faultfinding, criticizing, and condemning. It is pessimistic and pestilential, forever borrowing trouble and getting others into trouble. It is so accustomed to look on the dark side of human existence that it has become a veritable prophet of evil.

As the harmonies of spiritual Life unfold more and more in the universal consciousness, the devastating and obnoxious tendencies of this aggressive foreboder of evil become more apparent to those who are gaining a balance on the side of good and are striving to "live above corporeal sense and correct it" (Science and Health, p. 167). They feel the touch of error's boasted law of condemnation, but having learned that there is no material law they are enabled to annul this merciless usurper of divine power, and to find the one haven of rest and peace "in the secret place of the most High." In this way the Christian Scientist becomes reconciled to the good, and ever afterward, unless he loses sight of the goal of spiritual perfection, he will be found contending for the reality and operation of divine law as abundantly able to correct the discords of earth. He will never predict evil for friend or foe, but step by step he will prove that man is not a slave to matter, and that his knowledge of good is his spiritual dominion.

If all mankind could be brought to realize that what they know aright concerning God and His universe, including man, never enables them to know, see, or predict evil, what an awakening this would be! It is a too common error for mortals to believe that man has a perfect right to see and to know evil. This is equivalent to believing that it is right to know that two and two are five—a mental impossibility. If it is right to know evil, it is also right to think, speak, and do evil. Who could do evil or would want to if he did not mistakenly claim to know that evil is something, an entity? Does not an all-good God forbid man's knowing any such thing as evil? How could man be the image and likeness of God, and at the same time know or express something that God neither tolerates nor permits to exist in His universe? It is high time for humanity to awaken from the mesmeric dream of a good-and-evil existence, and to learn the real meaning of salvation as defined by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health (p. 593): "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed."

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