Article July 30, 1910 Issue

The building of splendid edifices in which to worship God...

James D. Sherwood

Beaumont (Tex.) Enterprise

The building of splendid edifices in which to worship God seems to be a necessary concession to the need of the times, but the Christian Scientist understands that "the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands;" that God is infinite Mind; that heaven is His throne and the earth His footstool. Again, the Christian Scientist believes the best is none too good, and when a church is to be built to accommodate their ever-increasing congregation they endeavor to build something commensurate with their requirements, and thus it is that many splendid church buildings are to be seen in our land; and the end is not yet.

Our critic contends for the doctrine of evil, and holds that with God "pain and evil are means of growth and of larger life." In order to judge rightly the Christian Science view-point where it is said that evil is unreal, one must be able to discriminate between man made in God's image and the mortal misnamed man, emanating from the Adam-dream, where the doctrine of dualism, the belief in good and evil, began. It is absolutely certain that God is, that He is infinite, and that He is infinitely good, and that He made all that was made and made it good, and so pronounced it: "very good." It is impossible for infinite good to know evil, since there is nothing beyond infinity; and there is but one creator, who has made all, and made it good, and finished His work. Evil, the opposite of infinite good, did not proceed from God nor from man made in God's image and likeness. Habakkuk declares that God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity."

It evil were real, God would be its author, else there would be another creator; but we are told in the Bible that "there is none other God but one." God is infinite good and is the only causation. We believe that "like produces like, and from this premise we are compelled to admit that evil, as vividly as it may appear and as wicked as it may seem, is temporal, and that with all other illusions it will pass away at the dawn of understanding. When God is understood as infinite good, then evil will be seen as unreal because it is not of God. As long as sin is indulged in, there will be a sense of suffering, the suffering in the flesh which destroys the belief in the pleasure of sinning. When repentance and reformation lead to the understanding of reality, the sinner will cease from sinning and the penalty of suffering will be removed, and harmony, the normal state of man and the universe, will be established. A Christian Scientist is fully aware of the arrogant, but false, claims of evil; he recognizes its seeming presence, despotism, and activity, but he does not believe that evil proceeds from God, and in that sense he understands it is not real. This view of evil gives the Christian Scientist confidence in his ability to overcome evil with good, and he has many experiences which prove that his faith is well founded.

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