Article March 5, 1979 Issue

A case of mistaken identity?

BERTSCH DOAN

When we identify Evelyn, George, Ruth, or Tom as evil—when we see a person as somebody to fear or even hate—we have triggered a battle and positioned ourselves squarely in the line of fire.

Impersonalizing evil the moment it confronts us is our best defense. Refusing to flatter it with identity, we can see it for the error it is. There is no man in it. It has no dimensions, no substance or basis of operation. It has no location. It is a mistake, rectified through divine Science.

Trying to graft a human sense of love on a faulty mortal is an exercise in futility if we expect to establish a permanently harmonious relationship. Christian Science defines man as idea, the individualized expression of divine Mind, of divine Spirit. Mrs. Eddy explains, "Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind conceiving them; but the intelligence, existence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God, who is the divinely creative Principle thereof."^{Science and Health, p. 513;}