Article November 3, 1934 Issue

Affirmative versus Negative

[Written Especially for Young People]

IDA RANDALL SIMONEAU

Many students have listened to and some have taken part in debates. Sides are chosen on the affirmative and the negative aspects of a selected question, and each contestant is supposed to do his best to prove unanswerable the points he makes for or against the subject. How like our daily living! We certainly have to decide many times a day on which side of various questions we stand. On our right decision rests much that makes for progress in education and in advancing happiness.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy makes these two important statements: "Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony" (p. 418); and, "Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth" (p. 186). From evil—negation—however, comes many an argument in some cunning disguise that would have itself acclaimed something desirable to be chosen as affirmation.

Have we ever tried to order thought on the positive side of these opposites for a day, and to keep a strict watch over the mental contestants? Let us see what these opposites stand for. Affirmation has on its side the declaration and acknowledgment of unchallenged, uncontradicted, and unquestioned fact. On the side of negation or evil are the fables of contention and pretension. Such an array as the latter could never be classed with the truth. We can bring this deduction to practical utilization when we weigh the inclinations of our thinking carefully, and know that divine, unerring Principle is the true standard.

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