Article October 4, 1952 Issue

YOU CAN'T DO BUSINESS WITH EVIL

H.PHELPS GATES

In everyday thinking and living one has to choose between good and evil, between right and wrong between spiritual reality and the lie of material belief. Christ Jesus, by example and parable, showed men how to make such a choice without doubt or fear. He showed how to overcome evil with good, how to resist error by understanding its spurious nature and by loving God with a whole heart, by serving only Him.

In the fourth chapter of his Gospel, Matthew records that Jesus, at the start of his healing ministry, took his stand for good and triumphed over the three evil temptations which confronted him. He refused to do business with evil. First, he resisted the temptation to use God's power selfishly and for his own benefit, to turn stones into bread that he might satisfy his hunger. Perhaps the second temptation which he overcame was the more subtle argument that he leap from a pinnacle and by descending to the ground unharmed convince the most skeptical of his supernatural power. Finally, after resisting evil's promise of material wealth and glory, Jesus commanded, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." And we read that "then the devil leaveth him. and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."

The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, has proved to this age that men may still destroy evil of every sort and sensibly realize God's allness and perfection by taking a firm stand against evil. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she writes (p.406): "Resist evil— error of every sort—and it will flee from you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die."

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