Article July 16, 1955 Issue

PERCEIVE THE NOTHINGNESS OF ERROR

GWEN M. CASTLE

In her address to the Alumni of the Metaphysical College in 1895 Mary Baker Eddy said, "Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously, or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fervently, for deliverance from the claims of evil" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 114). As our Master, Christ Jesus, admonished his followers to watch and pray, so Mrs. Eddy counseled her students to watch and pray constantly.

Because the claims of evil are sometimes subtle, and consequently not always apparent, it is necessary that we have some knowledge of evil and the way it claims to operate in order to defend ourselves from it. Nevertheless, before setting forth to uncover and destroy error in consciousness, we need to have a clear understanding of divine Truth. In short, it is necessary that we recognize evil in order to see it for what it is, namely a false belief which will vanish as we give up our belief in its reality.

A child may fear to go into a dark room, not because of what is there, but because of his belief that there is something harmful there. What his imagination has created becomes nothing—vanishes into its native nothingness—when someone turns on the electric light in the room or pulls up the shades. But the child needs to realize that the room is not occupied with the creatures of his dreams. As the light penetrates the darkness, his fears disappear, and with the disappearance of these there is nothing left to destroy.

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