Editorial March 4, 1939 Issue

The Goodness of God

Duncan Sinclair

GOD is good, infinite good, and His creation is therefore perfect. What a thought is this! But in a world where mortals believe in the opposite of good—evil—as real, and sin by indulging in evil, the great truth of God's unlimited goodness is heard by many often with incredulity, or fails to receive any credence from them. There are those, however, to whom it has come as the most welcome news that has ever reached them. They value it as the most precious of gifts, and are assured that, since it is true that God's goodness is established forever, all must sooner or later acknowledge the fact and be blessed. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 103): "The maximum of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all. Evil is a suppositional lie."

To the receptive in thought the truth of God's infinite goodness comes as a marvelous revelation. At first they may be silent before it; afterwards, as they realize to some extent its significance, they rejoice with joy unspeakable. God is good, and God is infinite; therefore good, and good alone, is omnipresent—everywhere present. Was ever revelation so great as this revelation? The more they contemplate it, the more wonderful it becomes to them. On many the effect is as if they had passed from dense darkness into the brilliance of noonday sunshine.

When the truth of God's infinite goodness comes to us, we cling to it, longing to realize its meaning more fully, and praying that we shall retain the heavenly vision. And soon we learn something which we may never before have considered seriously, the fact that in reality there is no evil. This was the discovery of Mary Baker Eddy. Clearly perceiving the allness of God, good, she drew the deduction that evil is nothing. No other conclusion could logically have been drawn by her. And it required inspiration from on high on our Leader's part, and great humility and purity of thought, to make known to mankind what was so entirely at variance with mortal belief, so utterly opposed to material sense, which argued continually for the reality of evil. Mrs. Eddy was loyal of her understanding of the allness of God, good, and hesitated not to make her discovery known to the world.

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