Editorial June 23, 1928 Issue

The End of Error

Albert F. Gilmore

Mrs. Eddy foresaw the time when human consciousness would no longer take cognizance of error; when evil, no longer having place in the thoughts of men, would cease to harass and destroy. This result, she anticipated, would be the outcome of the age-old conflict between truth and error—the conflict which has waged since men betook to themselves the belief that error is real and that man is mortal. Mrs. Eddy knew how obstinately material beliefs, with all their attendant discords and hardships, seem to oppose the oncoming of the Christ, Truth; but she also foresaw the futility of this attempt of error to disturb the serenity and harmony which characterize the realm of Spirit, the realm of the real.

Since Spirit and its manifestation alone are real, material beliefs will finally break up, losing the seeming reality accorded to them in human thought. This experience will be accompanied by the appearance of many types of discord common to mankind, until evil, seen in its true light, disappears from consciousness. Then will follow the serenity and peace which belong to the children of God. When defining the "Arena of contest," on page 96 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says of the confliect between good and evil, "These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth." Christ, Truth, is the destroyer of the claims of evil that try to oppose the reign of good; and Christ is invariably the victor. Since error cannot withstand the power of Truth, evil cannot remain in the presence of infinite good, for all reality is good. Therefore, the end of error is a foregone conclusion. It is mankind's destiny to be freed from every false belief. Salvation is humanity's certain goal; and conflict between reality and its seeming opponent is the sure means of obtaining the victory: for without conflict the potency of Truth would not be made manifest; reality would have no opportunity to prove itself. Accordingly, the seeming conflict is necessary to uncover and destroy the false claims through exposing their utter nothingness.

A perfect parallel to our Leader's prediction of the end of error is found in the teachings of the Master. The parable of the sower conveys the same message. Explaining this parable to the disciples, Jesus declared, "The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels." Christ Jesus could scarcely have set forth the situation as understood in Christian Science with more lucidity. The false beliefs are the bad seed sowed by the so-called mortal mind, or the devil; these constitute the evil with which mortals seem to have to contend. Spiritual truth is the reaper which in uncovering the falsity of evil brings about the end of the world; that is to say, the end of all material beliefs. For the world is the aggregate of material thinking, of all belief in matter as real, and in man as material.

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