Editorial July 31, 1915 Issue

Freedom in the Truth

Archibald McLellan

One of the leading postulates of Christian Science being that good alone is real, it necessarily follows that this religion teaches the unreality and nothingness of evil. Nevertheless there are many critics of Christian Science who have failed to understand that the positive statement of the reality and allness of good, God, is a logical foundation for the declaration that evil is unreal, untrue, and consequently without power. It is for this reason that they fall into the mistake of believing, as many of them have done, that Christian Scientists, because of their belief that evil is unreal, not only ignore evil but are encouraged to do evil.

This erroneous belief about Christian Science and its adherents is largely responsible for the many ridiculous statements made by critics, who imagine and claim that Christian Scientists heartlessly brush aside with empty words the appeals of those who are in need. These critics are quited fond of alleging that the methods of Christian Scientists consist largely of making such declarations as, "All you have to do is to think you are well;" "You haven't any pain—you only think you have," and others of the same ilk, and these are cited as the methods employed by Christian Scientists in healing the sick. How contrary all this is to genuine Christian Science! Mrs. Eddy writes: "The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love" (Science and Health, p. 367).

Throughout her writings Mrs. Eddy has dealt fearlessly with the problem of evil and evil-doers, and the wise student is he who accepts her teachings without permitting himself to become confused or disturbed because he cannot at once fathom the origin of evil. Under the heading, "No Reality in Evil or Sin," in her Message to The Mother Church, June, 1901, Mrs. Eddy has made it especially clear that Christian Science does not countenance or condone evil-doing. Christina Scientists will find profit in an earnest study of this section, for in it Mrs. Eddy goes to the very foundation of this false belief and annihilates it. On page 14 of this Message she writes: "The evil-doer receives no encouragement from my declaration that evil is unreal, when I declare that he must awake from his belief in this awful unreality, repent and forsake it, in order to understand and demonstrate its unreality. Error uncondemned is not nullified. We must condemn the claim of error in every phase in order to prove it false, therefore unreal."

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