Article July 4, 1942 Issue

The Allness of Good

W. CYPRIAN BRIDGE

On pages 398 and 399 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," appears the statement, "Evil has no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore good is infinite, is All;" and in many other passages in this book Mary Baker Eddy, when using the word "God," couples with it as a correlative the word "good." Also, on page 275 she states: "No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows." Therefore it is to be noted that she employs the word "good" as both cause and effect, thus doubly emphasizing the fact that all good resides in and therefore emanates from Him.

One of the chief traits of mortal mind is its proneness to limit good and circumscribe its potentialities, while at the same time, with characteristic inconsistency, it sets no limit to the supposed power of evil, which, indeed, it is generally ready to exaggerate rather than to minimize. One who was seemingly making good progress with her investigation of Christian Science appeared to be readily accepting its teachings until she learned that they admitted no such thing as an actual devil. After that she decided not to pursue her inquiries any further. She could not forgo this frightening bogey and accept the statement that, God being All-in-all and the source of all good, there was in reality no such thing as a devil. Her belief in the assertion of the poet Burns that "man was made to mourn" was not to be easily overcome. Her materialistic philosophy demanded a dark background even for her joys.

The fact that all good resides in and therefore emanates from God was made clear by the master Christian, Christ Jesus, when, as related in Mark, he rebuked one who called him good in the words, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." Throughout his ministry on earth his understanding of the ever-presence of good, of its one and only source, and the power and protection derived from this knowledge, gave him the moral courage fearlessly to withstand every assault of evil in however threatening and realistic a form it presented itself. This calm confidence never deserted him, even in the moments of his direst need.

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