Article May 26, 1956 Issue

EVIL IS NEVER NECESSARY

ETHEL HOYLE CUNNINGHAM

We sometimes hear it said that some evil-seeming thing which has come upon a person is God's will, is for some good purpose which will eventually appear, or is a punishment, or a discipline. But Christian Scientists do not reason in such hopeless fashion, nor do they accept any human frailty as fixed and immutable. With God there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17), and He is goodness itself. His creation, man, reflects or expresses His goodness.

Only God is All and always good. It may be asked: "Is not something like a material flower or clear, fresh water good?" No, not in itself. Flowers fade, water can dry up or become polluted. The very breezes can become destructive winds. Material good is always transitory, always changeable. Only God and His provision for our enjoyment are really and permanently good, and we experience His goodness and perfection progressively as our thought is opened toward the spiritual substance of Truth. Then the beautiful and good things of nature typify to us God's constant provision for His loved creature, man. The individual who understands this fact is in a position to experience good and to expect it.

When we learn to accept God as All, evil has not the importance to us that it has to those who believe that evil is real and has power over man. Mary Baker Eddy expresses it thus in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 231): "God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy." And she also writes (ibid.,p. 228), "Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God."

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