Editorial June 5, 1915 Issue

Troubled Waters

Archibald McLellan

It is well sometimes, when to human sense a storm of discord is raging and the troubled waters threaten to engulf everything in one tremendous tidal wave, to give ourselves pause long enough to remember that God still commands the winds and the waves, and that the "Peace, be still," of the Master was meant for the comfort and solace of anxious hearts in all times and places. Let us recall, too, the counsel of our Leader to "avoid voicing error; but utter the truth of God and the beauty of holiness, the joy of Love and 'the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,' recommending to all men fellowship in the bonds of Christ" (No and Yes, p. 8).

We must get away from the belief that there is any reality or power in anything but God, good, and His manifestations, for the belief that evil is real and has power over mankind is the foundation of all inharmony,—sin, sickness, and death. It is this false belief which needs to be destroyed, and which is destroyed through Christian Science,—through the scientific and exact knowledge and understanding of the allness and omnipotence of God. If evil were real, it would be so only because of some creative power which could give it origin and force it upon mankind. That God could or would create evil is unthinkable, because such an act on His part would be in every way inconsistent with divine goodness, and the instant that He launched evil upon the world, He would cease to be good.

The only other explanation of evil as reality would be that there is some other creator, some being or force with power to create and send upon men something which God could not and would not create. Such a belief as this would be equivalent to the declaration that God is not the sole creator, and is likewise powerless to prevent evil. This, too, is unthinkable, and leaves no logical explanation of evil as a phenomenon of human existence, other than that it is unreal, an illusion of mortal mind, a bald imposition upon credulous humanity. Of this false belief Mrs. Eddy writes on page 186 of Science and Health: "Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil."

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