Editorial May 19, 1945 Issue

Overcoming the Depravity of Deceit

Paul Stark Seeley

In what she calls the "Scientific Translation of Mortal Mind" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 115), meaning the transition of consciousness from a material to a spiritual basis, Mary Baker Eddy lists certain conditions of thought that typify the three degrees in this translation. The "First Degree," named "Depravity," has the marginal heading "Unreality." The "Second Degree" is "Evil beliefs disappearing," with the marginal heading "Transitional qualities." The "Third Degree" is "Understanding," with the marginal heading "Reality."

One of the unlovely qualities included in the "First Degree"— next door to hatred—is deceit. Its antidote, honesty, appears as a transitional quality in the "Second Degree." One step out of depravity is then the displacing in our thinking of deceit with honesty. No one likes to be thought depraved, yet how much of this quality of deceit, classed here as depravity, lurks in human consciousness. How often it offers to help mortals out of tight places, and how often they listen and lend thought and tongue to lies, sometimes spoken, sometimes acted, sometimes misnamed "white," but always black with some measure of mental depravity.

It is sometimes said in justification of deceitfulness that what the other fellow does not know will not hurt him. But if deceit be employed to keep another from knowing what it is his right to know, be he a partner in the home, the tax collector, a business prospect, a friend, or a stranger, then the hurt is not so much to such a one as to the one consenting to be the deceiver. He has turned away from Principle, God, Truth, and enslaved himself to evil. The deceit in his thought is like inner rot in a tree. Unless checked it stops growth and brings ruin.

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