Editorial June 11, 1927 Issue

One Cause

Albert F. Gilmore

One of the fundamental teachings of Christian Science is that all true causation is divine; that is to say, the universe springs from God, the only cause and the only creator. Mrs. Eddy writes of this with characteristic definiteness in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 207). "There is but one primal cause," she declares. "Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause." Thus she puts a ban upon the belief of cause apart from God, the infinite, hence the source of all that constitutes the universe of reality.

Mortals have long sought the cause of evil. For ages untold the search has been carried on, and without success. However long and earnest may be the quest for the cause and source of evil, the search will be fruitless; for that which has neither existence nor entity can neither be possessed of nor proceed from a definite cause. Given a cause, the effect would be real. If evil, including error of every type, had a legitimate cause, evil would be as permanent and stable as good; but since evil is a nonentity, nothing, however persistent its claim to be something may be, it is causeless, as it is also without the power to produce effects.

The belief in many minds, that is, in personal existence apart from God, has produced a Bable of tongues, utterances of the so-called mortal mind, comprising a seeming infinitude of erroneous claims and contradictions. Because evil seems to be, however, its claims are to be recognized, not as something, but as nothing; for thus they are destroyed. As the testimony of a false witness must be disproved to prevent its acceptance as authentic, likewise the claims of evil need to be dealt with, else their testimony may be mistaken for truth, and the gross misrepresentation of man called a mortal be allowed to stand unchallenged.

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