Article February 14, 1983 Issue

The tares are not the wheat

LEONE LESAGE WORKING

In what seems to be a mixture of good and evil in human nature the good alone is real. The evil is unreal; it is merely an illusion, the same illusion the Bible points out to us in Genesis, when the serpent discusses with Eve the warning given by the Lord God about the tree in the midst of the garden. "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."^{See Gen. 3:1-6.} Following an illusion does not open anyone's eyes; it closes them to the reality of good, which is and should be our only basis for assisting ourselves and others.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind,—Life, Truth, and Love,—and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science."^{Science and Health, p. 505.}

As a remedial reading teacher, I have worked over a number of years with slow learners, retarded adults, school dropouts, convicts and ex-convicts, the emotionally disturbed, and so on. In each instance the great necessity has been for me to distinguish between the individual and what was diagnosed as his or her difficulty. In other words, spiritual understanding was needed in order to acknowledge Mind, or the divine source, as good only. In this way goodness, spirituality, harmony, intelligence, and wisdom have been proved to be present, expressed by man as the child of God.

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