Editorial April 8, 1939 Issue

Proving Evil Unreal

Duncan Sinclair

Mary Baker Eddy made the great discovery that evil is unreal—evil, in its every seeming form. From the premise that God is infinite good, she drew the logical conclusion that nothing the opposite of good exists as reality. It was a marvelous discovery, in that it solved the problem of evil, a problem which had perplexed the minds of men throughout the ages.

In Christian Science evil is regarded as including not only sin, but all that is discordant or inharmonious—whatever cannot be classified as good. Disease is thus a form of evil; so are poverty, suffering, sorrow, and death. Looked at in this way, evil beliefs are seen to embrace a large part of human experience. For are not mortals constantly having to deal with some aspect of evil? Indeed, a continual battle is being waged against sickness and sin in order to lessen human suffering, and to bring a measure of health, happiness, and strength to mankind. Evil is unreal, but so great is the belief of mortals in its reality that the warfare with it seldom seems to cease.

Knowing the truth of God's allness—good's allness—and that evil is nothing, Christian Scientists are earnestly engaged in proving what they understand. They are holding steadfastly to the truth and demonstrating it in the healing of sickness and the overcoming of sin, suffering, and sorrow. The members of the Church of Christ, Scientist, are diligently engaged in proving that evil is false belief, by healing themselves and others through spiritual understanding. Mrs. Eddy foresaw the day when this should be the practice of all mankind. She writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 569), "Every mortal at some period, here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed to God." Obviously, this can be done only as mankind understands the truth of God's allness and that, since evil is false belief, there is no real power opposed to God.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

"The stability of thy times"