Article April 7, 1928 Issue

"Agree with thine adversary"

CHARLES V. WINN

Christian Science has brought to the world the demostrable fact that there is in reality only one divine Mind, and that this Mind is the sole cause, basis, origin, or source of all true existence. This Mind is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and being infinitely intelligent, comprehends and expresses all true thoughts or spiritual ideas. It cannot express or manifest anything contrary to its own perfect and wholly good nature. It cannot create evil; cannot cognize evil; cannot associate itself with evil in any way. The Christian Scientist soon learns that evils is not good in the making, is not undeveloped good, but on the contrary is utterly opposed and foreign to Truth, or the divine Mind. He quickly comes to understand that the so-called arguments of evil are not to be dallied with, but are to be instantly denied and utterly repudiated; that they must not be allowed the slightest foothold in consciousness, but must always be recognized as alien enemies, untrue to God and untrue to man.

Our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, states in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 580), "An adversary is one who opposes, denies, disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and Truth." Thus, error is not a positive reality, but only a lie; it has no basis in fact, and is without actual or real existence; it knows nothing about the truth, neither can it change it, affect it, or alter it in any way; it would have itself accepted as real and true, but it cannot long deceive those who have learned in Christian Science what true spiritual being is. The counterfeit cannot mislead those who know the genuine.

Then the question naturally arises, Why should one agree with the adversary? Inasmuch as the adversary—error—cannot know Truth, think Truth, or be congnizant of Truth, it must be self-evident that the arguments of error are only error talking about itself—that the false claims of evil are only evil's false, erroneous concepts or supposititious beliefs. Mrs. Eddy declares on page 294 of Science and Health, "This mortal belief, misnamed man, is error, saying: 'Matter has intelligence and sensation;'" and the alert student of Christian Science instantly sees that this is not man, but only error's false sense of man, without the slightest degree of substantiality.

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