Error Is Powerless

Duncan Sinclair

One of the things which strikes the student early in his study of Christian Science is the effort Mrs. Eddy makes to keep the fact of the allness of God before him. From first to last she declares this great truth in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as if to circumvent any possibility of failure to convince every reader of the fact. And many a time such a statement as, "God is everywhere, and nothing apart form Him is present or has power" (p. 473), has so clarified the mentality of some of those suffering from disease or sin, while they were reading this book, as to bring about immediate healing.

But Mrs. Eddy did not stop with the declaration of the allness of God: she drew a far-reaching and momentous conclusion therefrom; namely, that evil or error is unreal; and if unreal, then powerless. That was a unique deduction; so much so that it constituted itself a discovery. Consider what the statement that evil is unreal and powerless signifies. It means that every evil thought, every inharmonious thought, every sick thought is unreal, and therefore powerless. It means that every inharmonious condition, every sinful condition, every diseased condition is unreal, and therefore powerless. In other words, to say that evil is unreal is the same as saying that every thought which is not harmonious, not in accordance with good, has no real existence; that all erroneous thinking is illusion, having no more reality than the fallacy that twice three is seven.

It is well to practice the analysis and classification of thought as to right and wrong, in order to attain to facility in the art, because on quick analysis of mental conditions depends speedy healing in Christian Science. On this point our Leader writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 252): "Christian Science classifies thought thus: Right thoughts are reality and power; wrong thoughts are unreality and powerless, possessing the nature of dreams. Good thoughts are potent; evil thoughts are impotent, and they should appear thus." Here she classifies thoughts under two divisions,—right or good thoughts, and wrong or evil thoughts. And the student of Christian Science knows which thoughts are right and good, and which are wrong or evil, by his understanding of divine Principle, God. Having so differentiated the thought presented to him, he is then in the position to destroy, metaphysically, the wrong thought by the corresponding right thought.

But who can say he is always conscious of the omnipotence of good and the powerlessness of evil? Through Christian Science many have lost much of their fear of evil; but even they have to withstand the frequent gusts of evil belief which sweep at times across the sea of human life, because they have risen but comparatively little above the belief that matter or evil is real. And so long as the belief in the reality of matter or evil obtains,—that is, so long as the allness of God, Spirit, has not been demonstrated,—mortals will be subject to the belief of evil and be called upon to defend themselves scientifically against its assaults, through the understanding they possess of the allness of good. But, "if God be for us, who can be against us?"

In keeping before them the truth of the omnipotence of good, Christian Scientists do not fail to take notice of the false claims of evil and its ofttimes subtle ways of working. They know, probably better than any other class of people, just what evil purports to be and what it strives to accomplish. Indeed, they are alert in detecting it, and quick to counteract its seeming power by right thinking. This is one of the chief functions of the thought correctly instructed in Christian Science: it is able to detect evil's erroneous presence, and to destroy the belief.

On a certain occasion Mrs. Eddy wrote to a student, as recorded on page 157 of "Miscellaneous Writings," as follows: "Error has no power but to destroy itself. It cannot harm you; it cannot stop the eternal currents of Truth." Is not that a very definite pronouncement on the powerlessness of evil? Mrs. Eddy actually italicizes the words "cannot harm you." Then how is it that sometimes Christian Scientists appear to suffer from evil? The reason should be obvious. They appear to suffer from evil because they fear it or practice it themselves; that is to say, they suffer from evil by giving it power in their own thoughts. Evil is the supposititious opposite of good. Evil is hypothetical, illusory, unreal. Evil, in reality, never acts through anything or any one; never in reality is or does aught. Evil or error is powerless, because God is omnipotent good.

Duncan Sinclair.

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Among the Churches

December 15, 1923

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