Editorial June 17, 1916 Issue

Handling Error

William D. McCrackan

Nothing is more certain, amid the uncertainties of mortal existence, than this: that unless humanity learns to destroy evil, evil will destroy humanity. Christian Scientists have been taught by the writings and the example of their Leader to destroy evil by handling it as error and thus gaining the final mastery over it. There is no joy comparable to that of seeing error melt away before Truth as revealed by Christian Science, but the process entails first of all the unmasking of evil as such, so that it may not continue to deceive any by its pretense of being good.

Mrs. Eddy, in referring to her experience in unmasking "the metaphysical mystery of error," says, "I shall not forget the cost of investigating, for this age, the methods and power of error" (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 223, 222). The only way in which this labor of love on her part could be made of no avail for humanity's salvation and healing, would be through any unwillingness on the part of Christian Scientists to continue to unmask "the methods and power of error" with truth, until there is no evil left to be destroyed. The chapter "Animal Magnetism Unmasked" in Science and Health and the articles entitled "Mental Practice" in "Miscellaneous Writings," and "Ways that are Vain" in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," are among those parts of Mrs. Eddy's writings in which "the metaphysical mystery of error" is fundamentally and finally laid bare; and every practical Christian Scientist is using this unmasking to protect himself and his work from the secret assaults of the enemy.

A profound sense of gratitude must pervade the ranks of all enlightened Christians at this hour, that the seeming mystery of iniquity, thanks to Mrs. Eddy's supreme labor of love, is no mystery at all. The pretended powers of mesmerism or hypnotism, the superstitious claims of esoteric magic or necromancy, periodically unmasked by the Christian Science Lesson-Sermons, cannot deceive those who are faithfully and loyally following the prescribed order of handling evil as error.

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