Article January 29, 1938 Issue

Acknowledging Good

MILTON SIMON

Christian Science does not teach one to ignore evil, to run away from it, or to keep dwelling on its inevitability. It teaches one to overcome it with good. It never accords reality to discords, for this would not be overcoming it and proving its unreality. Since admitting evil to be real tends to its continuance, in belief, acknowledging the infinity of good rules evil out of thought, and, in consequence, out of experience. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 571): "At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil." To know oneself entails dropping the erroneous beliefs about oneself and seeing as real God's spiritual child only. This knowing dispels the mist of materiality which would hide divine intelligence, and enables one to receive the wisdom and inspiration that furnish "a victory over evil." To take a firm stand on the side of good, to admit and acknowledge God only, never separates us from God's goodness and bounty, but allies us with it.

One who was told by a Christian Science practitioner to claim and acknowledge only good, said that he felt he was trying to deceive himself in claiming good when it was not apparent. The reply came back, in substance: "Only the good is real, actually present. Only the good is true, and anything that isn't good isn't true. When you claim good you are claiming what is rightfully yours as a child of God. Admit the opposite and you are allowing error to deceive you. You must recognize the craftiness of evil in attempting to intrude itself on your thinking. Acknowledge the truth about yourself, as the image and likeness of God, and thus prove evil unreal in your experience."

Mortals ignorantly claim that to be real which they do not wish to experience. They admit much that is against their own interest. It is not the seeming condition, but what we believe about it, that counts. Evil has no inherent power. It cannot injure us. It is not from evil as an actuality, but from the false belief in evil or material conditions, that we need deliverance. This applies also to those who may feel they do not believe in God. Everyone, however, whether he admits it or not, believes in some power beyond his own. Hence the importance of accepting and desiring that which is wholly good, that which is real and true, that which comes from God.

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